Rector of the Ghana Institute of Journalism, Professor Kwamena Kwansah-Aidoo has maintained that the scrapping off of supplementary re-sit examinations in the Ghana Institute of Journalism should be enough motivation for students to pass their exams.
He also explained that the directive does not imply that students would no longer record examination failures.
At a students’ durbar on Friday November 4, Professor Kwansah-Aidoo announced that effective the second semester of the next academic year, students of the Communication school will no longer have the benefit of rewriting a course they have failed at a stipulated time scheduled by the school.
According to him, the move is aimed at encouraging students work hard and pass their end of semester exams.
“…in my experience, no where in the world do we run a semester system and then have resit of examination as well. It is an encouragement for people to mess up…it baffles me that anybody would go and write any exam in the hope they’ll go and repeat that exam; it is not a good idea” – he stated.
Reactions from students at the durbar grounds at the announcement of this plan suggested that the students did not understand the implications of this new directive.
“When we say there will be no resit it doesn’t mean you will be passed automatically. No where in the world does that happen as well” – Professor Kwansah-Aidoo clarified.
“What it means is that if you enroll in a subject or course, you’ll have to do your best to pass. If you don’t pass, it doesn’t mean that we’re kicking you out. It means that you’ll have to wait until the next time the subject is run again and then you register again and take it. That is how it is done everywhere else” he explained.
He further stressed the management, with this initiative seeks to hold itself with the standards of other universities around the world.
“…we want to hold ourselves up to the standards that are held everywhere else. We’re no different. We are a university and we have to behave like a university. That is what it is.” – he noted.
Professor Kwamena Kwansah-Aidoo thus admonished the students to aim to pass their exams at the first attempt to avoid the trouble of waiting a year for a re-registration of the course.
“…so if you don’t want to have all this trouble, you just study, focus and pass the exam once and for all. That’s all….so to summarize, there will be no resit of examination. If you pass, you’re fine. If you fail, you have to wait till the next time the subject is run. That should be enough motivation for you all to study hard and get it out of the way.”
He also admitted that the new directive will affect final year students who fail any of their papers.
“…take note that if you actually fail and you have to resit, it might actually affect your time of graduation as well.”
Meanwhile, General Secretary of the Students Representative Council (SRC) of the Ghana Institute of Journalism, Jessica Naa Adoley Moffatt has stated that the SRC was not consulted before this decision was made.
According to her, the SRC shall do a survey to have the concerns of students on the matter before it would decide on their next line of action.