By HENRY UMORU & INALEGWU SHAIBU
ABUJA—
Former Minister of Education, Professor Chinwe Obaji and the
Registrar of Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board JAMB, Professor
Dibu Ojerinde, have disagreed over the necessity of Post- University
Matriculation Examinations, Post-UME.
Ojerinde, who appeared before the Senate Committee on Education investigating the legality of Post-UME, called for its cancellation, accusing universities of using the test to rip-off university admission-seekers.
But, Obaji, in her presentation to the committee, said the test was an intervention by government to address the failure of JAMB.
Ojerinde argued further that Post-UTME was another matriculation examination that contravenes the law establishing JAMB and the directives of the National Council on Education that no university should charge more than N1,000 for the screening.
He said: “To conduct Post-UME runs contrary to JAMB laws. The results of the Post-UTME test are being used discriminatingly by different universities for different purposes, even as they invite candidates far more than their carrying capacities to boost their revenue from the exercise even when they know that they will not admit them”.
He said the universities should only do screening of qualified candidates rather conduct another examination, adding that the universities also had mechanisms for checking and flushing out those who entered the system through fraudulent means.
Obaji told the committee that discovery of students using fraudulent results to gain admission into universities made her to introduce the post-JAMB test in 2005.
She said:“What we found out was that there was no correlation between JAMB scores obtained by students and their performances in class after they had been admitted. It was obvious at the time that JAMB was messing up the admissions, with various kinds of lists.”
She also told the committee that the test was a credible means of screening and filtering qualified candidates in the face of the limited capacity for admissions into tertiary institutions.
Prof. Obaje however admitted that the effort to weed out unqualified candidates in the admission process through post-JAMB had also been abused by the universities.
She said the way out is for the Vice Chancellors to be strengthened to be able to implement the guidelines to the letter.
She alleged that even at the states, Governors had taken over admissions in federal universities, making it difficult for people without connections to gain admissions.
Former Registrar of JAMB, Salim Bello, who was Registrar when the test was introduced, said there were more malpractices in the universities than outside them.
Although the committee was yet to reach its conclusions, its members were of the view that JAMB and the institutions should meet to fine tune ways of screening the candidates for admissions with minimal cost to the students.
Meanwhile Senate has confirmed Mr. Francis Ugochukwu Elechi as Chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission, ICPC.
Senate also confirmed five members of ICPC among who are Alhaji Abdulalahi Ado Bayero, Alhaji Isa Ozi Salami, Ekpo Una Owo Nta, Professor Olu Aina and Dame Julie Onum-Nwariaku.
Senate President, David Mark after the confirmation charged them to work hard in fighting corruption in Nigeria.
CULLED FROM http://www.vanguardngr.com/2011/10/obaji-ojerinde-disagree-over-post-ume/
ABUJA—
Former Minister of Education, Professor Chinwe Obaji and the
Registrar of Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board JAMB, Professor
Dibu Ojerinde, have disagreed over the necessity of Post- University
Matriculation Examinations, Post-UME.Ojerinde, who appeared before the Senate Committee on Education investigating the legality of Post-UME, called for its cancellation, accusing universities of using the test to rip-off university admission-seekers.
But, Obaji, in her presentation to the committee, said the test was an intervention by government to address the failure of JAMB.
Ojerinde argued further that Post-UTME was another matriculation examination that contravenes the law establishing JAMB and the directives of the National Council on Education that no university should charge more than N1,000 for the screening.
He said: “To conduct Post-UME runs contrary to JAMB laws. The results of the Post-UTME test are being used discriminatingly by different universities for different purposes, even as they invite candidates far more than their carrying capacities to boost their revenue from the exercise even when they know that they will not admit them”.
He said the universities should only do screening of qualified candidates rather conduct another examination, adding that the universities also had mechanisms for checking and flushing out those who entered the system through fraudulent means.
Obaji told the committee that discovery of students using fraudulent results to gain admission into universities made her to introduce the post-JAMB test in 2005.
She said:“What we found out was that there was no correlation between JAMB scores obtained by students and their performances in class after they had been admitted. It was obvious at the time that JAMB was messing up the admissions, with various kinds of lists.”
She also told the committee that the test was a credible means of screening and filtering qualified candidates in the face of the limited capacity for admissions into tertiary institutions.
Prof. Obaje however admitted that the effort to weed out unqualified candidates in the admission process through post-JAMB had also been abused by the universities.
She said the way out is for the Vice Chancellors to be strengthened to be able to implement the guidelines to the letter.
She alleged that even at the states, Governors had taken over admissions in federal universities, making it difficult for people without connections to gain admissions.
Former Registrar of JAMB, Salim Bello, who was Registrar when the test was introduced, said there were more malpractices in the universities than outside them.
Although the committee was yet to reach its conclusions, its members were of the view that JAMB and the institutions should meet to fine tune ways of screening the candidates for admissions with minimal cost to the students.
Meanwhile Senate has confirmed Mr. Francis Ugochukwu Elechi as Chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission, ICPC.
Senate also confirmed five members of ICPC among who are Alhaji Abdulalahi Ado Bayero, Alhaji Isa Ozi Salami, Ekpo Una Owo Nta, Professor Olu Aina and Dame Julie Onum-Nwariaku.
Senate President, David Mark after the confirmation charged them to work hard in fighting corruption in Nigeria.
CULLED FROM http://www.vanguardngr.com/2011/10/obaji-ojerinde-disagree-over-post-ume/
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