Vice Chancellors battle JAMB over UTME

By Onyedi Ojiabor, Assistant Editor and Sanni Onogu, Abuja 

The Committee of Vice Chancellors (VCs) yesterday called for the elimination of the Universal Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) for admitting candidates into Nigerian varsities.
Chairman of the Committee of VCs’ and Vice Chancellor of the University of Ilorin, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, told the Senate Committee on Education in Abuja, that it was wrong to use the same examination to admit students into varsities, polytechnics and colleges of education.
The Joint Admission Matriculation Board (JAMB) according to him should return to Universities Matriculation Examination (UME) for the universities and separate examinations for polytechnics and colleges of education as it was before 2009 before UTME was introduced.
Oloyede contended that the screening conducted by the varsities was geared towards determining if prospective candidates were suitable for university education.
He also noted that the syllabus of the universities was completely different from those of the polytechnics and colleges of education.
He, however, admitted that there were some abuses in the conduct of the Post-JAMB tests conducted by the varsities, but added that those abuses were being addressed by the Committee of vice chancellors.
“We are addressing the problems right now, we have met and discussed all these problems and if we put in place what we have agreed, the problems will be solved”.
Oloyede denied that the VCs were using the test to generate funds but that rather it was costing the universities so much money to conduct the examinations.
He also accepted the suggestion that a single payment should be made by candidates for both JAMB examinations and the post-JAMB test.
Senator Chris Ngige explained the harrowing experiences of candidates for the post JAMB in his constituency, noted that the varsities need to explain the various reports coming from the candidates of irregularities bottlenecks associated with the exercise.
The Registrar of JAMB, Prof Dibu Ojerinde, had accused the VCs of converting the post UTME into a revenue generating exercise, despite a subsisting directive that the charges should not exceed N1, 000.