FG backs post-UTME - No Scrapping Of Anything

Written by Clement Idoko, Abuja Wednesday, 30 November 2011

THE Federal Government has laid to rest the controversy bet-ween the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) and univer-sities in the country over the conduct of post-Unified Tertiary Matriculation Exa-mination (UTME).
It has, therefore, approved the parallel conduct of UTME by JAMB and post-UTME by universities and other tertiary institutions, in line with the universities’ autonomy.
Specifically, the Minister of Education, Professor Ruqayyatu Ahmed Rufa’i, on Tuesday, said the conduct of UTME by JAMB and the post-UTME being conducted by the tertiary institutions in the country were within the statutory mandate of each body and should not be compromised.
The minister said this while inaugurating the multi-million naira JAMB Test Development Depart-ment complex at Bwari, Abuja.

She said there was no basis for squabbles bet-ween JAMB and tertiary institutions over the conduct of post-UTME, saying that both had legal backing in the process of selection of best candidates into tertiary institutions.
But the National Asso-ciation of Nigerian Stu-dents (NANS) has accused the Federal Government of double standard over its position on conduct of the post-UTME by universities.
NANS president, Dauda Mohammed, described the decision of the government to allow for conduct of post-UTME without putting in place corres-ponding mechanism to check the arbitrary post-UTME charges and extortion of candidates by various institutions as unrealistic.

The Registrar and Chief Executive of JAMB, Professor ‘Dibu Ojerinde, fielding questions from newsmen after the inauguration, said JAMB was not totally against the conduct of post-UTME, but insisted that it must be standardised and streamlined.