No Need to Apologise!
on Sabo -Oke (Nigeria), 30/Sep/2011 13:12, 34 days ago
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A VSO went into the examination hall to observe how examswere conducted. The Finals , for Year 3 students.There were over 200 candidates but not enough tables andchairs to go round; those without would have to sit the exam some other time(unspecified). Shortly after questionpapers had been given out, a studentdrew the attention of the supervisor to the fact that the papers now being pored over, were for an exam the following day, not thecurrent one! Papers were hurriedly collected in and supervisors went off tofind the right ones, leaving thestudents unsupervised but having first instructed them to remain in the hall in complete silence.Twenty minutes later the supervisors returned with the correct paper andblasted the students because they were not in silence. A girl who had beensitting on a desk was slapped across the head and told she would face a chargeof examination malpractice!The exam resumed with three students sharing one questionpaper. They were told not to lean across each other or this would also beconsidered malpractice and the students concerned would face automatic dismissalfrom the exam hall and disqualification from the examination.In so many dealings between people there is no sense of a needfor an apology or even an explanation or a need to respect the person beingspoken to if they are considered to be in any way of lower status. In this society, status and hierarchy lieembedded in the root .For the past two nights we have had no power or water. Oursleep has been regularly interrupted not only by waves of heat but by the noise and fumes of thegenerator owned by the bank manager who lives next door which is positioned notfar from our window. He leaves it running all night long with no thought of theeffects on his neighbours.‘This is Nigeria!’ is his response when tackledabout it. In a society where a bankmanager is of infinitely higher status than a teacher– or anything else incivilian life, nobody will put up muchof an argument.
