Management of Moshood Abiola Polytechnic had in October 2016 put the deadline for registration for the first semester 2016/17 academic session for February 10, 2017. This was contained in the academic calendar proposal for the session made by the Directorate of Academic Planning.
The proposal approved by the Academic Board after much deliberations at its meeting on Thursday, October 20, 2016 – as contained in an internal memo with reference number “MAP/ACAD I/ABM 03/ 033” – stated that late registration which attracts the fine of N5,000 only will take effect between February 10 and 18, 2017.
With two days left before Friday, February 10th, all is not going well considering the fear that has gripped students of this ivory tower. They are afraid of losing their studentship should they fail to meet up with the Friday deadline. Issues have aroused hindering the smooth registration process of these students.
Press Club MAPOLY had reported on Monday, February that a substantial percentage of the students want the deadline extended. Press Club MAPOLY had in the report titled “MAPAITES plead for postponement of registration deadline” x-rayed the challenges slowing down the registration of some of the students.
Some of the challenges include; the state of the nation’s economy, upgrading of level on the polytechnic portal of ND II and HND II students, delay in ND results for newly-admitted HND I students and the recently abated 5-day warning strike embarked upon by members of staff of the institution and others nationwide under the aegis of Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics.
The current state of the economy has dashed the hopes of many students and their parents, their guardians not an exception. The receding economy has left negative effects of the income and expenditure of the Nigerian people of which the students belong. We, at Press Club MAPOLY believe, this can make the management of MAPOLY revisit it’s decision on the registration deadline.
Another problem hindering the students from completing their registration before Friday is that of upgrading the level of respective students’ programmes on the polytechnic website. A problem which erupted in the twilight of 2016 has not abated as of the time of writing this piece. Press Club MAPOLY has participated in getting the problem solved and we have it on good authority that not less than 600 students were victims of the ‘upgrade of portal mess’ as at January 20th.
A problem we realised was from the polytechnic website as some students were automatically upgraded, some were not upgraded at all and some were given options of upgrading on their respective portals. The Admission Office of the institution leveraged on this and directed the students whose levels have not been upgraded to pay N2,000 in order to obtain Error Form for the correction of the error.
A directive the Admission Officer, Kushimo Idowu Folorunsho claimed was from the management. He also claimed that the errors were committed by individual students who have such issues and they should pay. Press Club MAPOLY gathered that lots of students paid the stipulated amount at the Bursary Department located at the Administrative building.
Surprisingly, levels of majority of these students particularly those who have not paid the N2,000 (as directed by the Admission Office) were upgraded on the evening of Friday, February 20th. Press Club MAPOLY was informed by the Admission Office and the Public Relations Unit of the institution that it was as a result of general system upgrade. However, information at our disposal shows that this issue still persists among the students. Press Club MAPOLY has details of more than 120 students from the departments of Business Administration, Mass Communication, Computer Science, Marketing, Science Laboratory Technology and Accountancy who still have this issue as at 9pm on Tuesday.
Also, Some newly-admitted students for HND programmes are experiencing difficulty in completing their registration. Some have not gone past the clearance level. Majority of the affected students are those who had completed their ND programmes in MAPOLY, they are yet to get their ND results from the Academics.
We urged the management to consider the plights of these students before making firm it’s decision on the February 10th registration deadline. We also believe so many students will be victims of incomplete registration should the management go on with the deadline, thereby losing their studentship. We however urged the management to extend the deadline of registration for the first semester 2016/17 academic session to allow these students complete their registration.
If some levels were upgraded automatically and some did not, we believe that all of these students may not have personally chose the wrong option during upgrade and the error is from the polytechnic website and as such they should refund the money paid by these students. We also urged the management to find lasting solution to the issue of upgrading the levels of students on their portal. We believe another general system upgrade is necessary.
We strongly believe that a state of emergency need to be declared on outstanding results awaiting to be received by the students, particularly those who had issues with their ND results. These and many more hinders qualitative education in this ivory tower.
PRESS CLUB MAPOLY 
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