I AM very disappointed at the manner in which the National University of Lesotho (NUL) has treated us, third-year business education students, with respect to this academic year’s examinations.
Last Friday we went to the examination room at 9am, ready to write as per the final draft of the time-table.
Upon arrival in the examination room, we were told by the invigilators that our course was not to be written that day and we were then asked to evacuate the examination room so that “others” could proceed with their examination. We were told to wait outside while our representative together with one of the invigilators went to the examinations office to seek clarification with regards to the unfortunate postponement.
They finally came back after half-an-hour or more and we were told that “our question papers have not been collected from an external examiner” so we would write the exams the following Monday.
Yet according to the time-table examinations end on May 16 (today).
What the heck is that?
What angered me most was that the reason which was given to us for this mess was very upsetting because these people knew well in time that examinations were, as usual, to be written in May so I do not understand what on earth that was supposed to mean.
The culprit — I mean the person who addressed us because he did not even care to tell us who the heck he was and what his position was — told us that there was nothing he could do about it upon realising how furious we were and he left us with those few words.
Our lecturer was not around but she had told us prior to the day of examination that she would not be there.
Therefore I totally do not blame her for what happened.
In fact, this course was supposed to have been written in the first semester but it had to be shifted to the second semester owing to the shortage of lecturers in the department at that time.
I have no doubt in my mind that whoever was liable for ensuring that the papers were collected in time from the examination office was so busy playing solitaire and logging on to Facebook — which is usually what goes on in most of the NUL offices — that he/she forgot to do what he/she is hired to do.
Or maybe the courier service provider was not paid in time and at the end of the day we found ourselves at the receiving end of his/her “at-work rest” or the examinations office’s failure to pay the courier service in time.
This is more than enough to prove beyond doubt that there is little or no follow-up in the university because if that was the case the management would have been aware of this problem and even have done something about it.
After all, examinations are not an emergency.
It is heartbreaking that we have to go back to square one with regards to preparations for the examination just because some people did not do what they are hired to do and we least expected the kind of scenario we find ourselves in, especially at an institution of NUL’s calibre.
Shame on whoever had a role to play in this mess especially the examinations office.
You did your best in moering us. I hope you are satisfied, aren’t you?
Khangelani Spele,
NUL.
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