Protests as 10 students of University of Ibadan collapse in exam hall

About 10 students of the University of Ibadan are said to have collapsed in an examination hall on Sunday, forcing some of their colleagues to assault officials of the university’s Distance Learning Centre (DLC), The Cable reports.

Credit: ent-redefined.org

According to The Cable, one of the students said poor arrangement on the part of the organisers of the programme was responsible for the incident. He alleged that each of the DLC students, paid over N118,000 per session, arguing that they deserved proper treatment.

According to the said student, the chaotic situation occurred at the Adebayo Akande hall, Ajibode, where different batches of students were to sit for GES 101 examination, starting from 9am.

“About 10 students actually collapsed, and were immediately rushed to Jaja Clinic (the university health centre). Security, CSO, and DLC officials were stoned by the angry DLC students. The truth is that they are just toying with the lives of the DLC students,” the student said.

However, the management of the centre countered the allegations of the students and blamed the collapse on those involved. Professor Bayo Okunade, the director of the distance learning centre, said:

“Students were supposed to come in batches. We batched them and they were each supposed to come in at a specific time, instead, all of them came virtually the same time and they wanted to get access when it was not even their turn.

“For the first time, for the fact that we want best practices, students finish their exams and they see their results immediately. One of the students that collapsed was to write his exam at two o’clock, he found himself at that situation at 12 o’clock. He came earlier than necessary.

“I was at the University Health Centre to access the situation, and before 12pm, there were six students. There was a lady from social work department who confessed that she discharged herself from a hospital where she was being treated for typhoid, Okunade said.

Okunade added that the university had put in place measures to prevent the recurrence of the incident even as it appears a clearly similar scenario played out in August 2015 when one student was reported to have died after slumping during a four-hour wait at the Adebayo Akande e-Centre in Ikeja, Lagos, owned by the DLC. Three other students were said to have collapsed on the same day.

Story: The Cable