School life is so fun and what makes it more fun is knowing that you can't do everything alone nor can you be an island hence the need to mingle and connect with other students.
I remember back then when I was in a higher institution, there were some instances when cooperation and using "one voice" helped me escape some situations.
It's no news that we have some lecturers in school that we love due to their accommodating nature, their patience with their students, and most of all how they go out of their way to ensure that we learn with ease.
One of the lecturers students loved in the Mathematics department then was Mr Ojo. He is a disciplinarian but very friendly. He doesn't like it when students fail his course as he uses different methods to make sure we learn without problems and also do well in his course.
Sometimes, he gives us tests after teaching us, and in the end, we might have written about eight to ten tests altogether before sitting for his exams, and he will record about four of the tests where we had excellent marks. That way it's only a student that doesn't attend his class that is likely to fail his course.
Another lecturer, Mr Bayo is the complete opposite of Mr Ojo. Most of the students don't like him because of his behavior. He doesn't care whether you pass or fail his course. He mostly teaches us not caring if we understand or not. In fact he always ensures that his courses are very tough to pass.
Sometimes when he misses lectures, he will not reach out to our H.O.C (Head of class) as to the reason for his absence and even when contacted he won't acknowledge the call.He rescheduled classes not caring if we had other classes and gave tests whenever his class had a few population.
To show just how cruel this lecturer can be, he will tell us to come for test on December 24th and January 2nd knowing fully well that students will travel home to spend the holidays with their families.
There was a day he decided to strike again but what he failed to know was that we had other plans.
It was on a social week in school and this was a time when students engaged in all kinds of fun activities which included Department Day, Football matches between different departments, Rag Day, and so on. It's always a time all students look forward to because we usually have loads of fun.
One of the days slated for football matches between departments to win the Provost Cup was the day he decided to give us a test knowing fully well that some of us are representing our departments. Even I was amongst the female players in my department.
What helped us was that some of our seniors had forgotten the information that he was going to give us a test that day and we all had a meeting and planned to stand with "one voice"
We agreed that we would politely tell him that we were having our social week hence all forms of academic activities are to be suspended.
So on that day, I think he has called the HOC of our seniors and informed them about the test he was to give them but like we have agreed, they all refused to do the test it didn't take long before he asked our HOC to call us all for a test.
We all went to the class and watched as he stood in front of us.
"I hope you were all informed that you are all taking a test today", he asked pushing his glasses down his nose and giving us a stern look.
Kehinde, our HOC stood up and said;
"Sir, I have informed my classmates and we have all decided that we won't be taking the test as it's our social week".
"Is that what you have all agreed on ", he asked trying to intimidate us with his looks.
" Yes Sir!!!", we all gave a chorused answer.
Our reply came as a shock to him and I guess he realized that he couldn't fail us all so he decided to use the test as an assignment to be submitted in a week.
He handed the test questions (typed on an A4 paper with lots of copies) to our HOC and left.
I heaved a sigh of relief and we all shouted happily as if we had won a lottery.
Our HOC proceeded to distribute the "assignment questions". I collected mine which I quickly scanned through it. Let's just say that I was glad we didn't sit for the test because if we had there was no way I would have passed. The questions were very tough.
I kept the question paper in my bag which I handed to my friend while I proceeded to prepare for the football match.
I was very happy we were able to escape from Mr Bayo's impromptu test that day.
We figured in a way we encouraged his behavior all along due to fear of failing his course but that day we finally escaped from it using One Voice
Thank you all for reading.
