They told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Friday that lack of hostel facility was affecting their academic performance.
Students of the Nigerian Institute of Journalism (NIJ), Ogba in Lagos are clamouring for the introduction of residency in the school system.
They told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Friday that lack of hostel facility was affecting their academic performance.
Miss Precious Ndubuisi, an ND II student, told NAN that lack of hostel facility in the institute was “tiring”.
“Many students reside far away from the school and they have to contend with heavy traffic that often delays them from getting to campus in time."
“The school management has prohibited students from missing lectures, but every morning, because of the traffic jam, many of us used to miss morning lectures,’’ Ndubuisi, who is the current “Miss NIJ” told NAN.
She said the lack of hostel accommodation was scaring many prospective students from applying to study at the institution.
“Many of us are not meeting up with the 70 per cent class attendance as stipulated by the school authorities because we always miss morning lectures.’’
Corroborating Ndubuisi’s view, an ND I student, Bisola Oshinbolu, lamented that coming to Ogba from Ibadan, every morning, was too stressful, adding that she had to look for accommodation in Lagos.
Oshinbolu said that although private accommodation was available around the school, they were very expensive for the average student.
“The hostels around here are expensive and I have to go home very early, which prevents me from socialising with my colleagues."
“I, therefore, appeal to the school authorities to find a solution to ease the accommodation problem facing the students,’’ Oshinbolu said.
Meanwhile, the Chairman of the Students’ Representative Council of NIJ, Mr Richard Roberts, was pessimistic about the likelihood of the management resolving the accommodation problem soon.
Roberts said that before he gained admission into the school, he knew the tradition had been that students were expected to sort their accommodation issues by themselves.
“However, some lecturers are in partnership with estate agents to arrange private hostels for willing students,’’ he said.
A lecturer in the school, Mr Tolulope Ojemuyiwa, who also runs a private hostel, told NAN that he started the business as a way of assisting the students.
Ojemuyiwa said he started the “Immense Grace Hostel” in 2014.
“I started the accommodation idea in 2014, since the institute is non-residential."
“I discovered that majority of the students resided far from the school and this was affecting their academic performance,’’ he told NAN.
Ojemuyiwa boasted that many of the students in his hostel always performed well in their studies, “coming out in flying colours because the hostel is close to the school’’.
The Deputy Provost of the institute, Dr Jide Johnson, however, said it had been the idea of the founding fathers of the institute to run it as non-residential.
Johnson told NAN that the school had been non-residential from inception, because it was established for the training and retraining of Journalists.
“Unless the stakeholders of NIJ reconsider the existing policy to make it residential, there is nothing the management can do about it for now.
“We do not have any agreement with any association or any landlord or any agent concerning accommodation.
“Students on their own source for their accommodation and it is becoming a tradition that the old students help the new ones to secure accommodation,’’ Johnson said.
One of Africa’s premier institution in journalism, media and communication studies, the Nigerian Institute of Journalism (NIJ), is one of two foremost training Institutions for Journalism, media and communication studies in Nigeria and in Nairobi, Kenya.
The institutes were established in 1963 by the International Press Institute (IPI), with Headquarters in Zurich, Switzerland.