Tina Amanda
A Social Activist in Rivers state has called on the government to immediately address the issue of sex-for-grades and money-for-marks going on in some tertiary institutions.
Ken Henshaw, who stated this while fielding questions from our correspondent, Tina Amanda, said grades are now being rated according to the amount a student is willing to pay, stressing that pressures are mounted on female students to offer sex in return and the male students made to pay.
According to him, a survey conducted in Universities in Rivers state showed that sex-for-grade and money-for-grade is highly prevalence which calls for urgent intervention.
“The summary of our findings is that sex-for-mark is highly prevalent in Schools, money for grades is also highly prevalent. The practice of lecturers compelling students to buy handouts, buy textbooks, have their names written as a precondition for writing exams is still highly prevalent. If you want a first class, all you need do is to save enough money from your first year, and you can eventually pay for A’s or B’s”
He stressed that the standard of education has diminished in the country, while calling on government and Universities’ Management to change the wrong narratives in tertiary institutions.
“If what we have in higher institutions persists, it will dangerously affect the quality of man power put out in the civil service and private sector which are expected to rejig the country’s economic state. When you have graduates who can not write a sentence without making a mistake; graduates who don’t understand that you cannot start a sentence with small letters, with that kind of system, the future is very bleak.
“We are calling on government to pay close attention to what is going on in the tertiary institutions and partner with Civil society organizations to fight this abnormalities. We also call on the Academic Staff Union of Universities and Polytechnics and Management of Schools to do something seriously about their lecturers who exploit the lapses in Nigeria’s system to produce some of the worst graduates that history has ever recorded”
