The
Petroleum Training Institute, known for its strict policies has been perceived by
most Nigerians to be an Institute of learning meant for only smart and serious
students. This idea had been birthed from the fact that the PTI entrance examination
was to be compared to that of few tertiary institutions in Nigeria in terms of
difficulty.
Mostly, those who
were well prepared were offered provisional admission into the institute. While
sometimes persons who were well prepared before writing the entrance
examination are scarcely not admitted, it was counted a privilege to be in the
institute as a student by those that were.
The
last PTI entrance examination was conducted for the 2016/2017 academic session
of which the number of students admitted was pretty small compared to the
number of persons who wrote the examination all over Nigeria, as it had always
been anticipated.
And although almost
every first examination result comes with an ‘advised to withdraw’ notice for
one or two students in few departments, this was part of what made the
remaining students firm and serious. Once it was heard that a student was
caught cheating in an examination hall, with evidence, in the institute,
everyone knew the student was going home, this was a standard which kept all
students in every department on their toes, resulting to total dependence on
themselves and in return good grades at least.
Students from the Petroleum
Training Institute could stand with colleagues from other institutions and
display brain power, even they could be distinguished by certain persons and
organisations outside the walls of the Institute.
All
these experiences were counter balanced with one session of change, maybe
mimicking the current administration in the country. What was meant to be help
to the Nigerian students had become a blow both to their families and to the
reputation of the institute, although the institute had collected all that
money already, who is really at loss?
The number of
students admitted for the 2017/2018 academic session skyrocketed due to the
policy put in place which substituted the PTI entrance examination with the use
of JAMB as a means into the Petroleum Training Institute. This was a good
thing, of which more persons would obtain the privilege of gaining admission
into the institute, but it became as though admission was offered to every
single person who applied, unsurprisingly with Nigerians knowing how low the
standard of the Joint Admissions and Matriculations Board (JAMB) had become.
At
least from the rumours and orientations that these new students had gotten
outside and within the premises of the Institute, it was expected that most of
them would buckle up, especially those who gained admission to the National
Diploma programme. There were so many faults and lapses which the returning
students had never seen before in PTI, ranging from students smoking in public
to the midnight romance which was now a norm as most students now had someone
to meet up with each night, while their academics suffer.
News of the exceedingly
poor performance of students in the institute after the first semester exam for
the session was no shocker since almost every returning student had been like a
fortune teller, revealing the amount of un-seriousness which had been displayed
formerly.
What used to be ‘one
or two’ withdrawals from some departments had become like an award to a lot of
students who were now advised to withdraw from the institute, and this ‘advice’
hasn’t actually ever been an advice, if you know what I mean.
Writing this does not give me joy, because
I am currently a student of the Petroleum Training Institute, and I have
imagined what it would feel like to be withdrawn from the institution after
paying numerous amount of fees, especially in a country as ‘good’ as Nigeria.
Well, I say kudos to
all students who did well in their first semester examination and those who did
not do too well but are still students of the institute, there is always room
for improvement.
