06/07/2016
The Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu recently
stirred the hornet’s nest when he announced the
cancellation of Post-Unified Tertiary Matriculation
Examination (UTME) in all the universities, saying
the only legally recognized body to conduct
university admission examination was Joint
Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB). The
Minister also cited the way some universities had
turned the Post-UTME to money-making venture as
part of the reasons for his position.
Adamu’s directive which was initially seen as a mere
kite flying, for it carried the element of de ja vu, was
later reinforced with a threat by him, saying he
would deal with any university which flouts the
order. Since then, the issue of Post-UTME has
become a subject of heated debate thus polarizing
stakeholders into either supporters or opponents.
As a worker in the industry, this writer feels it is not
quite right to be quiet on this contentious matter. .
Let me humbly disagree with the Minister, without
disrespecting his personality. That, post-UTME
constitutes additional burden to candidates and
drains the parents financially, thereby necessitating
the need to scrap it? I respectfully disagree, sir.
These are for too insignificant demerits of post-
UTME, compared to the valuable academic
improvements the exercise has brought to bear on
the system. I have confidence of my truth that, Post-
UTME has transparently reconstructed admission
template to the extent that the children of the poor
who passed the quality-control test needed no
assistance from anybody before being admitted.
For instance in the University of Ibadan, (UI) once a
candidate’s score was up to the cut-off mark of his or
her department of choice, such a candidate got
admitted automatically. Such a successful candidate
required no note from any quarter before being
admitted. This is the reason no one has ever
complained about admission fraud in the last 10
years. No candidate has ever alleged that he was
shortchanged because the process was, and still is,
very transparent. Every candidate was made to
understand all the stages leading to the final step of
admission.
More importantly, since 2003 when the post-UTME
was introduced in UI, the rate at which matriculated
students were being withdrawn from the university
as a result of poor academic performance after the
first year, has gone down drastically. Conversely, the
university has turned out more first class graduates
than before the advent of Post-UTME. This was
because those who were admitted were the best as
they went through meticulous and tough process.
Again , when last has anyone heard of cultism in UI?
Almost all the students who came in through Post-
UTME had no time for frivolities and cultism. They
were and still are serious minded scholars because
they were rigorously screened before being
admitted.
Now, the Minister, with due respect, has triggered
trouble in the system by insisting that the quality
assurance mechanism that has brought sanity into
our academic matrix must die. However, if the
Minister insists that this rigorous, quality-control
measure should be buried, let it be on record that he
has deliberately placed higher education in the
country on a gymnastic maneuvering. The Minister
has brought again the dreaded monster called policy
summersault. Nigeria today wallows in the straits of
horrendous backwardness as a result of consistent
policy summersaults . We have become so much
inured to policy inconsistency that we don’t even
know what to retain and what to discard!
In more ways than we will like to admit, this attempt
to cancel post UTME is deleterious to our educational
development. Without sarcastic hyperbole, the
scrapping minister’s nothing but strife, and achieves
nothing but distraction. The cancellation seems to
be motivated by some subterranean interests. We
must, therefore, not yield to this visceral policy!
If the cancellation was not meant to achieve ulterior
motive, why is the Minister insisting that the
universities should not have a say in the quality of
the candidates they are going to train? As Luke
Onyekayeyah noted in his column, “there is no
country in the world where all universities have the
same standard. Otherwise, we would not have the
Ivy-league institutions that are world-acclaimed.
Setting the same cut-off mark for University of Lagos
for instance and the newly established private
polytechnic in one village is senseless.”
Indeed, this current attempt to bury post -UTME is a
major infraction on the universities’ autonomy. This
is where Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU)
and the Committee of Vice Chancellors of Nigerian
Universities should take up the gauntlet. Post-UTME
represents integrity check in our academic process.
And, no serious nation plays game with the demand
of integrity. Certainly , the plan to cancel post-UTME
is an attempt to substitute placebo for an effective
therapy. It is like taking a deadly plunge for the
worst.
A few guesses may be useful here, once the only
requirement to gain admission is to pass JAMB
examination by scoring 180, then, lists from
influential people and groups would begin to fly
from Abuja to all the federal universities that these
students must be admitted to study Medicine, Law
and other prestigious courses. The children of the
poor who have nobody in Abuja are excluded from
the game because they are not connected..
Last year, the cut-off mark to study medicine in UI
was 74 % in UI -conducted Post UTME. I know many
brilliant children of the farmers who passed and got
admitted. Yet, I know children of the governors and
ministers who could not get in because they failed
the transparent post UTME. This is probably what
thi
