Medical students protest, lock UNILAG gate
By Aramide Kamal
It was a day of student protests in Yaba on Wednesday.
While students of Yaba College of Technology were protesting the death of a colleague, pre-medical students of the University of Lagos also locked up the school’s main entrance in protest.
The premed students, comprising students of Medicine and Surgery, Medical Laboratory Science, Nursing, Dentistry, and Physiotherapy, were protesting the school’s management decision to change the criteria for promotion to 200L, mid-session.
The students said the new criteria, which was not disclosed, deprived many of them the chance to continue their programmes.
“When the list was finally released, many students who met the requirements as originally laid out in the handbook were not admitted to the College of Medicine,” a student said.
Joshua Ekula one of the students, at the brink of tears, described the new decision as unjust and disheartening.
Another affected student who chose to remain anonymous vowed not to leave the premises till their plight is heard.
In reaction, the school authorities said it was only adhering to the fresh index system to regulate the quota allocated to individual university as introduced by the professional bodies regulating the study of medical programmes in the country.
This was contained in a statement signed by the university’s Information Unit head, Mr. Toyin Adebule.
The statement read in part:
“This year, the professional bodies have insisted on the enforcement of the quota upon which accreditation is hinged and hence the college has had to conform. What this means is that only students that are indexed will be registered by the professional bodies to practice after graduation.
“Senate at its meeting held on Wednesday, 27th January, 2016 had approved the implementation of the re-arrangement to conform to the professional bodies’ quota in order not to lose accreditation. This has regrettably meant that we have only been able to receive students into the college only up to the number the College of Medicine is allowed by the quota.
“We recognise and regret that this has led to some students being unable to cross over into the College of Medicine or their course of choice. Consequently, all candidates who were not successful to be placed in programmes in CMUL have been allocated to appropriate programmes on the main campus in Akoka.”
The school gate was eventually opened about a few minutes to 7:00pm..
