Menace Of Sorting In Universities

Education has been universally acclaimed as an indispensable tool for socio-economic revolution and transformation which is achieved through empowerment of its beneficiaries with knowledge, skills, attitude and disposition to enable them effect personal and national development. At present the ability of the university education in Nigeria to perform the above function effectively appears to be in doubt. This is as a result of the prevalence and ongoing intensity of the occurrence of sorting in the universities.

Sorting which is basically when an academically defiant student sorts himself out with the teacher or lecturer or the other persons in authority with a view of securing favors to wipe out that deficiency. This sorting term was an invention that creeped into the Nigeria University system in 1992, during the military regime of General Babaginda when very meager Salaries were paid to University lecturers. Out frustration, some naïve lecturers started illegal collection of money and gift items from student in exchange of impressive grades in favors of the students.
This was the practice named sorting.

At the initial stage of surgeon of this ugly practice, students used only money and gift items to sort themselves out with lecturers, but today, the sex item has been included then only academic staff were being sorted but today all segments of the University are involved in sorted and this practice at present is covertly but steadily bringing university education to a breaking point.

It is clear that both males and female students as lecturers engage in sorting, so the process is two dimensional. On one hand, students goto lecturers to sort themselves out and on the other hand, lecturers initiate the action sometimes directly by intimidating students into thinking of what to give them to buy them over or indirectly though their students agents who on behalf of the lecturers negotiate sorting items such as money, sex and other gift items for grades. The grade usually depends on the amount of money offered or degree of sexual immorality they indulge in. The sorting practice does not end with giving grades but extends to computation of final degree results. Under this condition students who would have ended up with third class degree may end up with second class upper or lower divisions. 

In some universities lecturers who were found guilty of sorting have been variously sanctioned either with suspension or dismissal. Save faith is with guilty students who were expelled. Still the practice of sorting is persistence even with the sanctions.