Students plead for hostels, accreditation

The students of the Akwa Ibom State Polytechnic, Ikot Osurua in Ikot-Ekpene, have called on the state government and the management of the institution to address accommodation problems and non-accreditation of courses in the institution.
Although they praised the government and the new school management, led by Israel Affia, the Rector, for giving them a serene and secure learning environment, they, however, said all was not well with them in the institution.
The Assistant Secretary of the newly-inaugurated Students’ Union, Mr Fred Daniel, a HND II Computer Science student, told The Nation that accommodation problem was affecting the students negatively.
“We are having hostel accommodation issues here. Most students want to live on the campus because there is always steady light here more than in the host community where most of us are living now. We can make more use of the school library as well as departmental libraries to enhance our academic performances.  The environment is clean, serene and secure.  It will enable us do better academically,” he said.
Daniel also said the non-accreditation of some of the Higher National Diploma (HND) programmes is retrogressive.
He said students prefer to complete both their ND and HND programmes in the school, instead of being forced to look for another institution to finish up their programmes.
The Students’ Union Director of Information and HND II Mass Communication student, Anthony Ebong, listed some of the affected courses without HND accreditation to include: Building Technology; Electrical–Electronics Engineering; Civil Engineering; Urban and Regional Planning; Estate Management and Quantity Survey among others.
Meanwhile, the Mass Communication students of the school have appealed to the government to provide them with a platform to go on air.
They spoke when The Nation visited their studio while they were rehearsing news presentation. The students said they wanted to go on air as well as have a page in a newspaper. They appealed to the government to buy airtime for them. They said this would place the school on the national and international map as a centre of excellence.
On safety on campus, the school’s  Chief Security Officer, Mr Friday Samuel, assured students’ safety is guaranteed.
“The whole school is fenced-round, we have security patrol on duty 24 hours; we have car bomb detectors and the one we use to check individuals. Our trained security officers are strategically located and on surveillance day and night, on and off campus,” he said.