Missing marks are a dread in campuses, public Universities especially. As Campus Vibe discovered, quite a number of students struggle when it gets to graduation time, due to a missing mark on the transcript, somewhere along their academic journey. In most cases, public universities are the most affected with the dread.
A former chairperson of Moi University's Union Mwamburi Mwang'ombe wrote a letter to the University's administration complaining about a student who had resorted to casual jobs at Muthurwa because he could not graduate. In the letter, Mwang'ombe highlighted the case of Mumo Patrick who joined the university in 2008 but has never graduated since, losing hope of securing a job within his field of study.
"What is one supposed to do when their lecturer loses the marks of exams they did and the said lecturer chooses when to be present and give those marks? What if the same lecturers force students to look for marks from booklets long collected and disposed," wrote Mwang'ombe.
Despite having contacted Mumo over the matter, he was unreachable for comment.
At Kenyatta University, Mwaura Mike studies literature and explained to campus vibe that while he is in his fourth year, he has chased lecturers for two blanks on his first year transcript. Three years of chase, he says, have been futile and frustrating, extending his fears that he might not graduate. At the same University a certain Orioki Guto took ages before he saw his effort turn to a certificate. His tale is the forklore of the missing marks ghost, popularly narrated within Kenyatta University. He joined Kenyatta University in 1990 and was expelled in 1993. However, after a Narc government amnesty in 2003, he was re-admitted. While almost all re-admitted students have since graduated, Mr Guto was yet to graduate because of missing marks for two units by 2012.
Speaking to The Nairobian a Moi University Lecturer Juma Musakali blamed the scourge on high turnovers, back to back semesters and shifting administrators among others. Musakali said that other than the administration, some of the blame would go back to students.
"Some of them don't sit the examsthey claim to have done, while those who sit special exams or supplementaries cause some confusion. It is hard when you all do not sit exams at the same time," said Musakali.
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