The Faculty of Education and Extension Services (FEES) is one of the best and oldest faculties at Usmanu Danfodiyo University Sokoto (UDUS). It’s regarded as a reputable division where competent teachers are bred and trained for the development of the education sector across the nation.
Since its inception, numerous teachers have been produced with superb results and competency. Apart from training students to be good teachers, they also instill morality, and valuable knowledge in the students.
According to the tradition of the faculty, every student at the end of their 200-level and 300-level sessions would undergo a Teaching Practice (TP) training which is equivalent to industrial training in other faculties. The six weeks of teaching practice training is part of the courses to offer in their next levels titled EDU 301 and EDU 401 respectively.
This mind-building training is not free as we all know that for every good thing, there will be a price to pay. So far this lifetime skills acquisition programme is organized twice, students are mandatory to pay twice. This was the normalcy of the process until the story changed recently. The payment turns to three times while the training remains twice. Paying for what would not be acquired was not supposed to be the fate of the students of the faculty of education.
The payment schedules and the training sessions have been going smoothly not until the 2022/2023 academic session. The then 400-level students, now fresh graduates, paid for the TP three times. They paid in 200-level, 300-level, and 400-level, of which they only did teaching practice two times. We learned that after a series of complaints, the faculty vowed to refund every student but it seems to just be a promise like an ashes blown away by the wind.
Coming up again, the current 400-level students are also seeing teaching practice fees in their payment schedule. The matter on the ground poses some questions for the faculty to answer. Does the story of their senior colleagues want to continue with them? Will they get a refund after payment? Or will they go through another teaching practice?
Glaringly, the country’s economic crisis has led to inflation of everything and brought hardship to every household. This is a reason for the authority to subsidize the registration fee but the reverse is the case. No one expects the faculty of education to add pepper to the wound of the students after the general increment in the registration fee.
The additional TP fee has brought more hardship and makes the fee unaffordable for many students. The students are waiting patiently for the faculty to make an amendment and effect the changes. As the mother of all faculties, here are little children crying out, and hope you listen with your listening ears.
