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| SEN. DAVID MARK |
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| WAHALA OF POST UTME SCRAPPINGS |
Few weeks ago, the upper chamber of the National Assembly after a motion raised by Senator Heineken Lokpobiri directed its Committee on Education under the chairmanship of Senator Uche Chukwumereije, to investigate the conduct of Post-UTME by universities based on the avalanche of complaints calling for its abrogation.
Last year, a member of the House of Representatives, Hon. Samson Positive, from Kogi State, dropped a bombshell when he said the Post-UTME being conducted by the tertiary institutions was illegal and contrary to the Act, establishing JAMB and argued that the test was an additional burden.
In a swift reaction to Senator Lokpobiri’s motion, Pro-Chancellors, Vice Chancellors, Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and some stakeholders defended the conduct of the test while JAMB aligned itself with the position of the two education committees.
The ripples generated by the Upper Chamber’s debate leading to the description of the conduct of the Post-UTME by the institutions as illegal, has certainly opened up another battlefront between JAMB and the institutions. It will be recalled that JAMB has, in recent past, canvassed the scrapping of the post-UTME test, arguing that it ran contrary to the law that established the exam body. The battle has shifted to the floor of the Senate whose committee is expected to submit their report, arising from the public debate on the issue.
The controversial test was started in 2005 by the tertiary institutions as part of their internal quality control aside from the passing of UTME by the students. According to the institutions, the exercise was embarked upon as a result of lack of trust in the dubious high scores being posted by JAMB candidates. They claim that some candidates with high mark in UTME, after securing admission perform badly in their various courses in the university. It was alleged that such candidates use mercenaries to write the matriculation exam.
The Post-UTME was welcomed by stakeholders because it would eliminate impersonation and other fraudulent acts but each year the universities jack up exam fees, thereby making it difficult for candidates from poor homes, particularly those who chose two or three institutions, to participate in the exercise.
Many candidates have been said to have lost their lives in auto accident while going or returning from sitting for the Post-UTME thus making the exercise a big burden for parents.
Supporting the scrapping of the Post-UTME, Mr. Justin Chieke, a lecturer at the Institute of Aviation Management of Nigeria, in an article pointed out that Decree No.2 of 1978 (amended by Decree No. 33 of 1989) empowers JAMB to among other things, conduct matriculation examination for admission into all universities, polytechnics, monotechnics and colleges of education and also place suitable qualified candidates in the tertiary institutions.
Supporting the argument of the proponents of the Post-UTME, Chieke stressed that “aside from the fact that the test is not backed by the law, there is nothing in the graduates of the last five years that shows that they are better than those before them. Thus, this shows that the problem goes beyond JAMB.”
He continued: “What is being masqueraded now as Post-UTME test is nothing but admission bazaar and racketeering. We have heard of cases where those who did not even sit for UTME were not only allowed to participate in the Post-UTME but ended up being offered admission at the expense of those who sat for the UTME. It is the legacies of the past regime, which must be abolished for national interest.
Since the introduction of the Post-UTME test, we have not recorded any significant reduction in cult activities or improvement in the standard of education in Nigerian higher institutions. Rather, the situation has assumed a worse dimension. JAMB remains the only body vested with the authority to place candidates into the Nigerian higher institutions. The statute that established it did not provide that its products should be subjected to another form of examination by the institutions. Since there has yet to be a new law repealing JAMB Act, everything that has been done through the Post-UTME test is illegal.”
The decree establishing JAMB, according to those queuing behind the scrapping of the Post-UTME, has not been repealed or amended by the National Assembly, so where did the institutions conducting the test get their powers from, they queried. A parent, Mr. Kunle Demola, was categorical when he told Daily Sun that the institutions are currently engaged in act of lawlessness because their action is not backed by the law of the country. The main motive of the universities, he argues, is to rake in money at the expense of poor candidates.
Mr. Demola’s bitterness against the Post-UTME is understandable. Three years ago, his son scored 292 in JAMB and was to read Law in one of the federal universities but that test stood in his way as a stumbling block. “My boy scored 48 in the Post-UTME and was not offered admission. Till date, he is still at home and has written about three UTME without success. But for the Post-UTME my son should be in his third year by now.”
“My brother has written this Post-UTME four times but they have refused to give him admission even though he scored over 200 in JAMB, so I really don’t know what to say concerning this Post-UTME thing,” laments Anne Ugwu, a civil servant, I am confused about Nigeria and I am not happy about the situation. He would have been in his fourth year at least studying Medicine because this year will make it the fifth time he has gone for the screening but up till now nothing has come out of it so I don’t know what to say, but I’m still trusting in God hoping that one day he will get the admission.”
Joel Williams David, awaiting admission into the university agrees with Demola. “I don’t think the Post-UTME is necessary because the main reason JAMB was introduced is for one to enrol into the university and sitting for and passing JAMB very well means you are eligible to go to the university. So the Post-UME to me is not necessary. The Post-UME is a waste of time because most of the time you see a student who scores 230, 250 in JAMB not getting admission because of the shady activities going on in some of these campuses in the name of godfatherrism, where someone who is not as competent as the other student who scored 250 will gain admission because of one connection or the other.”
“I don’t think there is any need for Post-UTME,” says Seth Elisha Manga, an OND graduate of Plateau State Polytechnic, Barkin Ladi. “If the universities want money from students, they should not use the Post-UTME as a guise for doing that, we will be willing to give them the N1500, or even more if we are sure we will get the admission instead of writing this Post-UTME because they are wasting most our time as well as putting tension on students, some of who are fending for themselves, students like me who do not have anybody to take care of them.”
Other Nigerians interviewed and who didn’t see any need for the Post-UTME include Ada Nwachukwu, Emmanuel Diya, all civil servants and Andrew Zira, working with Edo Broadcasting Services. While Nwachukwu and Zira see it as an avenue of money-making for the universities, Diya sees it as a waste of student’s time.
While the likes of Chieke, Demola, David, Manga, Nwachukwu, Diya, Zira support the scrapping of Post-UTME, Yusuf Rasheed, Mike Olakunle, Benny Atuwa and Mary Bankole are among the numerous stakeholders that are up in arms against those calling for the abolishment of the test. According to him, his daughter scored 223 in UTME in 2008 after four attempts but was offered admission based on her performance in the Post-UTME to read Banking and Finance at University of Ibadan.
His last son has been offered admission, likewise, based on his high score in the UNILAG Post-UTME to study Engineering. Wondering why the National Assembly, JAMB and some few stakeholders would call for the scrapping of the test, he noted that it has exposed candidates who engaged the services of mercenaries during UTME to obtain high marks only to be exposed by the rigours of academic works when eventually admitted.
“I think the Post-UTME is a way of screening the students more, knowing the environment they will be coming into, but even though the Post-UTME is not entirely clean, at least it is better than JAMB,” says Atuwa, a civil servant.
“They say learning never ends, you learn from everywhere,” notes Bankole a student of Pharmacy, Lagos State University. “So if you go for that screening, at least you will gain knowledge about the university and what to expect if you gain admission into it.”
Making his own contribution, a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Sociology, Lagos State University (LASU), Mr. Ayodele Johnson, disclosed that Post-UTME is inadequate in solving admission problems confronting our nation institutions of higher learning, noting that “the problems of malpractices in JAMB which led to the introduction of the Post-UTME test in 2005, has pervaded the Post-UTME exercises in most universities.”
But that is not to say that he supports the scrapping of Post-UTME or JAMB either. Lamenting that nothing has been done to solve the problem of JAMB, Johnson said: “we’ve had several cases where some candidates obtained excellent score like 300-plus in JAMB but failed to attain an average score in Post-UTME. There have also been instances where candidates who performed poorly in JAMB did well in the Post-UTME. This simply shows that these students were able to manipulate their way through one phase of the exams and were unfortunate in the other.”
While urging parents, schools and churches to promote societal values of the past when honesty and hard-work were greatly cherished, in order to create a society where the students want to make good grades by working hard, he identified lack of such values as the reason most students’ lack the right psychological and academic constructs suitable for the university.
Backing the Post-UTME, the Principal of Trinity International School, Ibadan, Mr. Mike Olakunle, argued that since its introduction some years ago, it has helped to expose the lies of the so-called high flyers who after admission, can’t cope with the rigorous demands of their studies. He tasked JAMB to rather back the innovation by the universities to better the examination-result-measurement system.
He faulted the federal lawmakers for describing the Post-UTME as illegal and warned them not to tamper with the status quo as doing so would not augur well for the system as those not fit for tertiary education would then have more access than the qualified.
Already, the institutions have the backing of the Executive Secretary, National Universities Commission (NUC), Professor Julius Okojie, to continue the test but certainly the battle has just began as JAMB seemed determined push its case through with the Federal lawmakers.
AS CULLED FROM SUN => http://www.sunnewsonline.com/webpages/features/education/2011/nov/15/education-15-11-2011-001.html
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