On Friday October 3, 2014, a 400-Level law student of the University of Lagos (UNILAG), Damilare Babajide, was rewarded with a new car alongside other unannounced mouthwatering perks for being the winner of the 2014 Miss UNILAG pageant, many gave organizers of the pageant thumbs up.
Meanwhile, the reward for success in that beauty pageant was
many times better than what was given out to another female student,
Zainab Olaitan, who towered above other contenders by winning the university’s
debate on September 10, same year.
Olaitan, a 200 level student of Political Science, who
emerged victorious from a very rigorous academic debate was handed a laptop
computer with the sum of N100, 000 by the Vice Chancellor, Professor Rahamon
Bello. The year before, the winner of the same debate, Ms. Mary Adegunloye,
only went home with a cash prize of N50, 000 and a laptop computer.
Shortly after Babajide was presented with a car by the
Director of Student Affairs (DSA), the social media was abuzz as students and
others heavily criticized the disparity in gifts, stressing that it was
tantamount to placing beauty over scholarship.
In fact, some students on campus claimed that the disparity
in the value of gifts to winners of academic competitions, in comparison with
that carted home by beauty queens was capable of lowering the morale of
students.
A student of Mass communication, Famutimi Similoluwa said
“They claim to promote education but they are all unserious people teaching
young people to bring pleasure before work”.
The institution having seen the scenario reached out to the
students and wrote boldly on a banner mounted beside the Sport Centre saying
that serious minded students are still burning the midnight oil and getting
rewarded for their efforts.
This, watchers of the development say
is reflected in the number of graduates ending their undergraduate studies in
the First Class Division.
Most students that gain admission into universities dream of
graduating with first class degrees, but in most cases, even some that have the
potential to do so are never disciplined enough to realize their potentials, as
the class of degree a student earns is largely a function of self-application.
A first class degree is earned when a student scores Cumulative Grade Point
Average, (CGPA) of 4.50 and above upon graduation.
However, in the last five years, UNILAG has produced about
500 first class graduates, despite claims in many quarters that the standard of
education in the country has either fallen or is falling.
Speaking in January, 2010 at a media briefing ahead of the
2009/2010 academic session, the vice chancellor of the institution, the late
Prof Adetokunbo Sofoluwe informed that a total 89 student graduated with first
class in 2008; 103 in 2009 and 87 students in 2010.
On that occasion he added, “It is important, therefore, at
this juncture, to state that we are determined to continue our tradition of
producing quality first class brains that can compete favorably with their
equals in any part of the world.”
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