The Vice-Chancellor, Chrisland University, Abeokuta, Prof Chinedum Peace Babalola, FAS, has admonished secondary school students to be intentional and deliberate in their pursuit of academic excellence early enough as soon as they secure admission.
Prof Babalola spoke at the institution’s preparatory seminar organized for select private secondary school students in the South West Nigeria which had over 300 students in attendance.
She counselled the students to endeavor to make informed decisions in making correct choice of their intended institution to avoid frustration or academic setback.
The Vice-Chancellor recounted her experience while enrolling for JAMB many decades ago. In her words: “I remember when I was like you, most of us didn’t have this opportunity. I think I was among the second set or so when JAMB was newly introduced. We didn’t know so much about admission via JAMB. But, I kept telling myself, I want to study Architecture and that I didn’t want to do any Medicine. When it was time to fill my JAMB form, I was in boarding school, there was nobody to lecture me on how to fill the form, so I filled Architecture, not knowing that those Universities i picked were either not offering Architecture or they were admitting at A Levels. So result came out and my name was not there”
She then charged the students on making informed decisions in their academics, noting that Chrisland University would give to them an opportunity to make the decisions before exiting.
“When I graduated, I looked back and I told myself, if I had made a decision to make a first class early enough, I would have made it. So don’t make the mistakes some of us made.”
Prof Babalola also lauded the teachers for coming down for the event.
Owing to the pervasive trend of insecurity in Nigeria, a security expert, Dr Kunle Olawunmi, who also spoke at the seminar, assured
parents seeking admission for their wards of a secured, safe haven in Chrisland University.
Dr Olawunmi, is a retired Navy Commodore who incidentally is Head, Department of Criminology and Security Studies, Chrisland University.
The security expert said the University has gone extra mile to attract the best human resources in terms of quality of its academic faculties and have instituted efforts in the provision of adequate security within and around campus in order to avoid unpleasant cases of cultism, drug addiction, kidnapping and other criminality.
Such requisite measures, Olawunmi added include installation of round-the-clock CCTV cameras and solar lights, usage of security dogs, installation of bio-metric machines for a better access control within the campus for both staff and students as well as partnership with security operatives such as The Nigerian Police Force, Ogun State Fire and Safety Services, National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), State Security Service, and the Army, among others.
Earlier in his opening remarks, the Head of Department, Mass Communication, Prof. Femi Onabajo underscored that the event which was themed “Maximizing University Education in Nigeria’ was packaged with the intention of addressing the lacuna that has been identified in the inability of students to attain excellence in their academic sojourn in universities.
While lecturing the students on how to access the JAMB Central Admission Processing System (CAPS), Ogun State JAMB Coordinator, Mr. Akeem Balogun stated that CAPS is another innovation to automate the admissions process into the tertiary institutions through a faultless and seamless operation.
Mr Balogun added that CAPS addresses the challenges associated with the manual approach and restores the autonomy of the tertiary institutions with respect to admissions.
The JAMB Coordinator noted that the CAPS system makes candidates the focus and empowers them with information on available choices of institutions and programmes, thereby expanding admission opportunities, eliminating multiple admissions, and providing easily retrievable data for decision making.
In another remark, the Ag. Director of Academic Affairs, Dr. Mercy Agumadu urged the students to have a target and vision for the grade they want in their external examinations, noting that vision is not seen when the eyes are closed.
In an interactive session with top Chrisland University’s students who are currently within the First Class grade bracket, Miss Omotola Olori, Miss Favour Ama, Miss Toluwalase Afolabi and Mr. Jeremiah Owolu, stated that having personal relationship with lecturers and effectively managing time are added advantage towards achieving academic goals.
According to the first class students, tips to succeeding academically include practicing of talents, time management, increasing motivation, attention, focus and effort, attending lecturers, having a positive attitude and preparing adequately for examinations.
Other sessions during the seminar included question and answer session and a break-out session where students were mandated to visit the Departments of their choices.
