An opinion piece by Aruna Turay
In Sierra Leone, a trend has emerged where university students celebrate completing their final exams with lavish ‘signing out’parties, complete with gifts like cars, land, and cash.
However, some argue that this celebration is premature, as students haven’t yet received their grades or confirmed their graduation. Instead, they suggest that these celebrations should be held when students actually graduate and receive their degrees, rather than just finishing exams.
This way, the festivities would be more meaningful and less likely to be dampened by disappointing exam results.
Unfortunately, students’ sign-outs in Sierra Leone have become personal occasions, just like graduation ceremonies and birthday celebrations.
Students from Universities are being honoured by loved ones and parents with cars, plots of land, money bouquets, physical cash and lots of other goodies in public view of colleague students as sign-out gifts.
The argument here is whether this celebration is timely because students are not even certain if they will pass and get the required grades for graduation.
Such celebrations should not be held when students complete their final-year examination paper, but when they are graduating and finally leaving the university, as completing an examination is not the same as passing an examination.
Signing-out celebrations are supposed to mark the end of one’s academic journey, and not the end of an examination paper.
Most students signing out and dancing on campuses in celebration are often disappointed when their examination results are released and they discover they failed some modules.
For many people, sign-out celebrations after just completing examination papers is a mismatch of time. They believe that such celebrations should be reserved for graduations and the completion of the academic journey.
