Ikwo (Ebonyi) – The Ebonyi College of Education, Ikwo, has centralised the sale of textbooks following students’ agitation against imposition of reading materials by lecturers.
Prof. Silas Omebe, the Provost of the institution, made this known on Tuesday in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Ikwo, noting that the issue had generated lots of concern to the institution.
NAN reports that students of the institution had been agitating against the imposition of texts and other lecture materials on them by the lecturers, which they termed to be ‘exploitative’.
Omebe noted that at present, students purchased lecture materials at the institution’s bookshop, where all lecturers were are expected to deposit texts and relevant learning materials.
“Lecturers are therefore, no longer expected to sell books directly to students as a committee has been inaugurated to fix prices for the materials.
“There are stipulated guidelines which guide the committee in fixing the prices while the lecturers have been directed not to make the materials compulsory.”
According to him, most of the students have poor parental background which necessitates much emphasis on teaching and not sale of materials.
“We have also directed that award of marks on assignments and quiz should not be based on purchase of materials, as the students have been given my phone number to report any lecturer flouting the directives.
“We also operate a cashless policy where students don’t pay cash while purchasing the materials but pay through a designated account approved by the committee,” he said.
The provost, however, noted that students, in most cases, contributed to the texts imposition problem by having the erroneous belief that purchase of the materials guaranteed them automatic pass.
“The students put pressure on the lecturers to sell the books to them even when they are not willing, in order to avoid the rigorous processes that ensures academic success.
“This is the reason why most of them don’t report the lecturers’ imposition of materials, as it will ultimately affect the committed students,” he said.
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He, however, said that the students were being enlightened on the importance of acquiring the materials to achieve overall academic success.
“They should realise that a “‘worker needs his tools to succeed’’ because the materials would provide elaborate explanations needed to understand the topics being taught them,” he said. (NAN)
