From David Eze,
Abakaliki
At least eight students of the Ebonyi State University have slumped at the Permanent site of the institution during a stampede.
The stampede occurred as students rushed to access the school’s ICT for their examination. A source in the institution said the University had adopted the Computer Based Test (CBT) for some General Studies Program (GST) courses.
The GST are courses taken by all students of the institution, irrespective of the department or faculty.
The source said the hall where the examination was to be taken was too small for the mammoth crowd of students that were to write the course. It was gathered that all the students from the four campuses of the University were told to come to the ICT centre to write the exam.
“There was poor planning of the exams. The hall had just about 500 computers and the students to write the exams were over 1000”.
The source said the University administration should have staggered the exams so that the hall will not be crowded but they failed to do so. “Today’s exams has again exposed the sorry state of our state University
“They should’ve typed this exams and made photocopies so as to get to all the students but didn’t because they paraded today’s exam to be a computer based one”.
Reacting to the incident, the SUG President, Abanni Samson expressed deep regret at the incident which he described as totally avoidable
“As leaders and firstly students, the SUG share in the pain of all EBSU students and on this note we assure everyone that never again will EBSU students, under our leadership be made to go through such horror in the name of writing any exam or undertaking any academic activity”.
It took the intervention of the Deputy Governor, Dr. Kelechi Igwe who immediately went to the scene, to open up the road. Igwe told the students that he has noted their demands and assured it will be given immediate attention.
He advised them not to take laws into their hands, since the present administration is always sensitive to the yearnings and aspirations of people especially students.
The students through their representatives are asking the University Management to abolish Computer Based Test since they do not have enough facilities and space, as well as total overhaul of the University.