By Emmanuel Egbujuo
First class is the highest grade in the higher institution of learning in the world. One is honoured with such a prestigious grade if he scores 4.5 Commutative Grade Point Average, CPGA, and above.
In view of this, the President of the Academic Staff Union of University, ASUU Professor Emmanuel Osodeke, accused the private tertiary education institutions of arbitrarily awarding first-class degrees to students at an event at Delta State.
Reacting to the allegation, an education psychologist and chancellor with the University of Port Harcourt, Professor Chikwe Agbakwuru, criticized the private higher institutions for lowering standards to impress parents and students, thereby compromising on quality education.
“The worst of the situation is that when the first class graduates from the private universities are admitted into programmes like Nigeria Law School with their counterparts from the government universities, few of them manage to gain first class.
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The majority of first grade of such programmes are usually graduates of public universities and some of whom even graduated second class upper and lower degrees”, he stated. On his part, a lecturer from one of the prominent private universities in the country, Dr Uche Awaji Josiah, debunked the allegation and explained that any first-class degree holder in his school went through a thorough and rigorous assessment from year one to the final period of his academic program before he was found worthy.
“Every institution has standards, and before a student is awarded a first-class degree, the student must go through cumulative stages, starting from 100 level till the final year.
So it will be out of place for different lecturers teaching a student in a department to award him a first class degree”, he noted.
A first class degree holder from a federal university, Muna Enyinnaya said the acquisition of the high grade demands challenges coupled with the mechanism of selection based on the school’s policy.
“I think the process is unfair because some persons actually deserve this first class but because the criteria or factors lecturers place may be to put a check on the number of people graduating with first class even the person who qualify for the grade may be removed from the list”, he said.
Another first-class graduate from a private university, Bliss Harold, said it is hard for any student to come out with high grades in the university.
“The people that had first class in my department were three. In my faculty, I don’t think they were up to five”, she emphasized.
Standards are sacrosanct in the grading and awarding of degrees to produce competent graduates that will drive the socio-economic development of the nation.
