Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) Registrar Professor Ojerinde just announced that admission process for the 2012/13 academic year for Nigerian tertiary institution will commence soon.
Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) Registrar Professor Ojerinde just announced that admission process for the 2012/13 academic year for Nigerian tertiary institution will commence soon.
But rather than settling the nerves of keen observers of Nigerian dysfunctional educational system, the intended harmonization of cut-off points is raising the question of who really is in-charge of admission into Nigerian universities. If cut-off points will soon be ‘fixed’ what then is the relevance of post-UTME examinations conducted by most individual Universities, Polytechnics and Colleges of Education for admission? Why should students seeking admission spend scarce resources on fees and transportation for two sets of similar exams? Are Nigerian students being terrorized?
If as established by law in 1978, amended in 1989 and in 1993 JAMB is empowered to be responsible for the: ‘general control over the conduct of matriculation examinations into all universities, polytechnics and Colleges of Education’; why should university administrators extort additional money from students seeking admission to their schools?
Asking students to take JAMB and Post-UTME is like requiring students to make five credits in NECO and WEAC before gaining admission to Nigerian tertiary institutions. NECO was introduced to Nigerian education system as an alternative to WEAC. WEAC is not a prerequisite for NECO as both are independent. But Post-UTME is not an alternative to JAMB as JAMB is a prerequisite to Post-UTME. So, what’s really the difference?
If as claimed by some university administrators that the standard of students being admitted through JAMB is so low that they are ‘un-teachable’ and that universities end up producing graduates that cannot read nor write; then one wonders the type of system we operate. Shouldn’t there be an inbuilt mechanism that ensures that students that do not meet certain minimum standard are asked to withdraw? The last time I checked elaborate essay writing was still part of NECO and WEAC English exams. So, is there really any difference between the content, standard and level of difficulty in the two exams? Has there been any significant improvement in the system since the introduction of post-UTME? Is Post-UTME just an avenue to create an opportunity for university administrators to further extort money from students by promising admission for cash?
It has been reported that JAMB makes about =N= 7 billion a year from examination fees. With a Post-UTME fee of between N 2,000 –N 5,000, tertiary institutions in Nigeria will be making between N 2 billion to N 5 billion yearly from the same students. How are these billions generated from JAMB and higher institutions spent? You don’t think this double and needless imposition of examination on Nigerian students is a form of academic terrorism?
The National Assembly members have made a lot of noise (as usual) about post-UTME being illegal and called for its scraping. But what happened? Nothing! What is the ministry of education doing about this double “taxation” of students even when a good number still fail to gain admission? Nothing!
The cost of training a student in Nigerian higher institutions is so high today that every fee (in whatever form) being paid by a Nigerian student must be scrutinized. That our political office holders and ‘elected’ lawmakers are inept and politically and morally corrupt does not mean we should fold our hands and watch the continued decay and shams in our educational system. I will conclude by expressing the hopes and wishes of indigent parents and students in Nigeria: It is either we go for JAMB or we go for Post-UTME. We don’t need the two.
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Churchill Okonkwo
[email protected]
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