TRANSCRIPT OF SADNESS

How error in result computation robbed Rivers State student opportunity to do PhD abroad

She graduated in 1995, from the Department of English Language but her pains of frustration and sorrow have known no bounds ever since then as she had had to engage in many battles with both spirits and men to correct the grave error made in her academic transcript. This mistake made by the Exams and Records of the institution, she claims, has robbed her of the opportunity to further her studies, particularly her doctorate, abroad.

Narrating her ordeals to The Sun Education, Amadi said that the blunder committed on her score on Teaching Practice, was caused by the institution, and not University of Ibadan, to which the institution was affiliated (for the award of degrees to its then NCE (Nigerian Certificate in Education) students reading higher) and therefore should be corrected by the university to enable her go for her doctoral studies. The lady who did her mandatory teaching practice at Government Secondary School, Rumuokwuta, Port Harcourt, claimed she passed the course with a higher grade, A.

Transcript – student’s or university property?
“I had two supervisors; one from Rivers State College of Education, another from University of Ibadan, who carried out the supervision,” she recollected. “At the end of it all, they noted ‘A’ mark, which was confirmed to me, and I have been on teaching course all along before my final year. So, I had no cause to fail it. But after all my efforts, Rivers State College of Education came to rob me of four credit units, which is 28 points. It is very painful; it is not something I would like to go to sleep and forget, when I know that my future success depends on it.”

Amadi was not to discover this error in her transcript until she traveled to United Kingdom, to read her Masters. “The transcript was sent to the Greenwich School of Management, London, the school where I applied for my masters.  I went to them and said, Rivers State College of Education does not issue students transcript; they don’t give us access to transcript.”

All the same, the authorities in charge of the issuance of transcript compelled her to pay for all the transactions made concerning the required documents to the institution she applied to, abroad.

“I paid for all the transactions,” she said. “I finally got access to my transcript when I finished my programme at Greenwich School of Management, London. After the programme, they summoned all the students; my file was brought and that was when I saw my transcript for the first time. I requested from the white lady, Ann Leo, who was in charge of students’ affairs, results and record, for a copy. But the lady expressed surprise that I had to rely on the school to sight my transcript when I should have gotten it from home. She said that all over the world, transcripts and certificates are property of the student that should be issued at the student’s graduation.”

On this score, Prof. Edith Chukwu, of Students Affairs Unit, Rivers State University of Science and Technology (RSUST), disagrees with Ms Leo, the white British lady. “Transcript is a compilation of all the academic courses you have taken and passed in the course of being a student in university,” she told The Odogwu Media Communication. “It is a compilation of your academic work in terms of course work you did. Transcript is supposed to be domiciled in the university and is always given to a student when the need arises. In most cases, if the student wants to further their studies, the university in question, which the student would like to go to, will request the transcript; so, it is the university property’.  On the issue of issuance, the professor said the duration did not matter; the document could be issued any time the student or the education institution he or she is applying to, requested for it.

Obstacles on the road
But that is the least of Amadi’s problems. In fact, as far as she is concerned it did not matter whether the student or the university owned the title deed, insofar the error she discovered in her transcript is duly corrected although she is fully convinced that had Ann Leo’s argument carried the day at the time she studied at Rivers State College of Education, she would have discovered the error earlier as to cause the authorities to make necessary amendments.

“Our examiners marked the scripts after which Ibadan external examiners went through it and verified and confirmed,” she said. “What I am telling you here is that the transcript was done here and moved to Ibadan. And based on what they did, Ibadan issued certificate. That is why the correction has to start from here, if at all they want to do anything.”

The embattled lady further insisted: “University of Ibadan will not be looking back at six or two credit unit practical.  It is based on what the transcript stated that they would award certificate, and my school had already noted 2.2 instead of 2.1, on the transcript before moving it to Ibadan. I feel terribly bad; I feel victimised. This is man’s inhumanity to man. I want justice from the institution.”

The Registrar of Ignatius Ajuru University of Education (the present name of the one-time Rivers State College of Education), Barrister Ikem Adiele, whose office is at the centre of the storm, regrets that there is not enough of the justice that Amadi is talking about, to go round, for now. To start with, the matter she is talking about happened long time ago, more than 20 years ago to be precise, when the administrative structure on ground was quite different from what we have now, when records were mainly manual, and not automated.

Secondly, some of the key players who helped to either supervise her Teaching Practice, grade it or compile the results had left the system and even if the people manning the Exam and Records are able to get the transcripts after serious search they have no way of confirming her claims. So? From whichever angle you look at it, it is a complicated case.

In a chat with The Sun Education, Adiele while sympathizing with Amadi’s situation said if it were two or three years ago, he would have personally travelled to the University of Ibadan to sort things out. He added that after exams they always packed the exam answer scripts in a bus and sent to Ibadan for marking and award of degrees. He insisted that what she saw in her transcript could not be changed because they did not award degree twice in any institution of higher learning.

Possibility of human error
Speaking further, the Registrar who noted that one cannot rule out human error in the compilation of the result, added that scores earned from teaching practice could not stop her from furthering her education. He observed that if any education institution in any part of the world doubted her teaching practice score(s), they could write the university.

Agreeing with Prof. Chukwu’s position on the matter, Adiele noted that transcripts are university property and not students’ and any exchange of it can only take place between education institutions; it is not to be given to any ex-student on demand. He acknowledged that Amadi had sent some people to him whom he told the same home truth – that she graduated 20 years ago, which is a long time, when the institution was affiliated to University of Ibadan for the purpose of award of first degree to its students. “If the error were detected then, it would have been taken care of,” he assured.

He added that contrary to the lady’s talk about victimisation, that no education institution worth its name would deliberately set out to victimise its students knowing full well that such students could bring good name or have some achievements that would rub off, positively, on the institution tomorrow.
Amadi said that what gave her the courage to pursue the case was because she was convinced she passed the course with “A”. According to her, her performance at the Government Girls’ Secondary School, Rumuokwuta, where she did her teaching practice and the attestation of her two supervisors, confirmed her grade on the course.

Reacting to the statement credited to the Registrar that her degree could not stop her from furthering her education, she fumed:  “The 2.2 score on my degree certificate had already stopped me from achieving my PhD, which is my future.  I had already sent applications to four schools outside Nigeria; three in Canada and one in Australia. They all turned me down, feeling that my application would not compete with other applications.

“From their reply, I cannot compete favourably with those that had 2.1 and First Class. These schools have set their standard. What they required is 2.1 (Second Class Upper) and First Class; the minimum they required is 2.1. I have already spent 153 dollars on each of the four applications because my first degree has no bearing. A lady in charge of admission in one of the schools I applied to, abroad, told me that I could not compete where there are excellent results. Four education institutions I applied to, namely, University of Toronto, Canada, University of Alberta, Canada, University of British Columbia, Canada, and University of South Wales, Australia, turned me down. If these four universities have turned me down, what hope do I have? I paid application fees in all these universities. In all these, I paid up to $500 excluding correspondences. I have suffered traumatic pains all in the name of error committed by Rivers State College of Education.”

Options for the university
According to her, the only option left now is for the university to rectify her result because of the impediment it has posed to her future education pursuit. “I still insist that this is academic victimisation and man’s inhumanity to man,” she said. “That is why I want to go to court to seek for redress. If the court fails to correct the mistake which has put my academic pursuit in jeopardy, if the court fails to grant my prayers, then I will petition the Almighty God. The Transcript Letter Head bears Rivers State College of Education. Even, the woman that signed it, Mrs. K. H. Kue Ikoro, for the Registrar, is also here.  If the Registrar wants to help, he would have started from his department, Exams and Records. Even at that, he has not responded to the application I wrote on the matter up till now. I have not received any reply from him.”

Prof. Chukwu informs that, ordinarily, there ought to be no error in the compilation of the transcript.  “There should not be, all things being equal. For the student to graduate, all courses must be documented and kept in the university. If there is any omission, it may be due to improper documentation; we are human beings.”
Asked whether error in transcript can be amended, she replied: “It depends on the circumstance. If the student has graduated and has evidence of the courses, because the university is a system that should always keep proper documentation and she presents the evidence proving what she is claiming for, the university should go back to her department and retrieve the result and re-compute it for her.”

Prof. Victor Peretomade, Vice Chancellor, Delta State University, Abraka, shares Chukwu’s view. “We are all humans; there is a likelihood for an error to occur during the compilation of result. We are all prone to error; we are not God. But where there is error, you can find out where the problem lies and reconcile your records.”

Prof. Godwill Ikpi, Deputy Vice Chancellor (Academics), Cross River University of Technology, agrees: “The only way problem can arise is in compilation. But it could be reconciled by checking the proper records in the record office and comparing what student has in generating departments. Also, you can go to score sheet, where individual lecturer assesses and submits to departmental office where the final results were prepared.”