Admission seekers want National Assembly to abolish post-UTME screening

Prospective admission seekers into Nigerian higher institutions on Thursday urged the National Assembly to abolish the post-Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) screening.

While expressing their support for the abolition, respondents who spoke in Lagos said most institutions were after their monetary gains.

Joseph Ayinla, a candidate, noted that instead of solving the problem of aspiring candidates, the post-UTME screening by individual universities was compounding it.

Mr Ayinla said the purchase of post-UTME form in at least two universities after passing the JAMB examination, and travelling to the two different institutions were some of the challenges of the candidates.

"Also, candidates have to pay for accommodation as well as reading rigorously to pass the post-UTME screening examination.

"I support the idea of abolishing the post-UTME screening by the national assembly because it has inflicted more hardship on prospective candidates.

"Many poor candidates, after working hard to purchase JAMB forms and passed JAMB, are now being exploited by the various university management with the sale of post-UTME forms," he said.

Another admission seeker, Chioma Nwogwu, said that the post-UTME should be abolished or redefined to save the future of the millions of prospective candidates.

Miss Nwogwu said that apart from the screening process being a rip-off, it has continued to increase the number of candidates seeking admission yearly.

Said she, "I don't like the process of the post-UTME screening; it is stressful to purchase the form from the institution of choice and also to travel to both institutions for the examination.

"If it can be abolished, fine, but if not, the university authorities should soft-pedal on their screening criteria".

Idris Adeleke, explained that all efforts to gain admission into the university of his choice were being frustrated through the post-UTME screening exercise.

Mr Adeleke noted that, in as much as the motive behind the post-UTME screening was good, authorities in charge should be fair and should not consider the monetary gains above the available admission space.