A total of 2787 Teachers and Guidance Counselors from the Higher Teachers’ Training College, ENS, and 400 engineers from the Higher Institute of Sahel, ISS, have graduated from the University of Maroua. This brings the number to about 20,000 teachers and 3,000 engineers who have graduated from the university, five years after it was created.

This was disclosed during the graduation ceremony of the 4th and 3rd batches of the Higher Teachers’ Training College and Higher Institute of Sahel respectively, of the University of Maroua, UMa. The ceremony took place on April 14, presided at by the Rector, Prof. Edward Ako Oben, deputising for the Minister of Higher Education.

The Rector said having graduated 20,000 teachers and 3,000 engineers, five years after its creation, the University could legitimately lay claim to a label. He urged the graduating students: 1470 from the 1st Cycle, 1136 from the 2nd Cycle; 102 Guidance Counselors, and the engineers, to be exemplary in their professional careers and to honour the training they have received. He assured the population that, the graduating students have been given the appropriate training.

“The training you have received from the Higher Teachers’ Training College and Higher Institute of Sahel is topical and relevant. Here you are endowed with appropriate tools to effectively heighten your participation in development challenges. You are competent and competitive. But competence and competitiveness are perishable commodities, you will have to reform and renew incessantly… teachers and counselors, you should show proof of originality; engineers, put to practice the numerous creativity you have acquired to resolve development problems”, the Rector advised.

Though the University is facing infrastructure problems, especially now that the student population is on the increase with the start of faculties, Prof. Ako said solutions would be sought. He announced that the University was going modern with the imminent launching of online training programmes in professional Masters and Research, and that the University will continue to struggle to obtain its scientific autonomy by assisting Assistant Lecturers in the obtention of their terminal decrees.

He added that on the whole, the ambition of UMa is to be classified among the best universities in Africa. The ceremony was attended by the Governor of the Far North Region, Augustine Awa Fonka, the Director General and the Secretary General of ENS N’djamena.

Students Graduate Without Diplomas

Unlike last year, some students graduated without their diplomas. According to a University official, some of these students didn’t hand in complete documents; hence their diplomas could not be signed. Others, like those from the Science of Education whose degrees are needed first, have to wait for their results before their diplomas could be signed and handed to them. Though the explanation is logical, many were crest-fallen on graduation day as their peers brandished their diplomas around.

However, many graduating students could not make it to the ceremony because they were still on the road. One of the graduating students who couldn’t make it to his graduation ceremony disclosed that the transport agencies were saturated, given the crowd of students and family members who had thronged the bus stations. The graduate said he spent four days on the way and could only get to Maroua on Monday at 11 p.m.

Others have blamed the University for the prolonged wait and numerous fake graduation dates. “I learned graduation was scheduled for Friday, 11April, and said to myself that it could be another fake date, since there was no official communiqué announcing it. When I was told it will take place on April 14, I could only get a space to travel on Sunday. I don’t know what happened but it was stressful.”

Also, some family members who were coming to Maroua for the first time to witness the graduation of their children, arrived town the next day with foodstuff that had gone sour. Others came along with goats, chicken, plantains, vegetables, among others, arrived a day after the ceremony. But they still communed with their relatives in their own way.