Thursday, 20 November 2008
Admission into federal basic and tertiary institutions is causing worries to parents and candidates seeking placements for the 2008/2009 academic session.

The carrying capacities of universities, especially the public ones, are grossly inadequate for thousands of
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Prof Julius Okojie, Executive Secretary, NUC.
qualified admission seekers, whose hopes for higher education seemed to be dashed.

More than one million (1,054,043) candidates sat for the 2008 Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) Universities Matriculation Examination. Out of this number, less than 200,000 (20 per cent) are likely to be offered admission. Registrar of JAMB, Prof. Dibu Ojerinde had said pointedly.

“We can only take just 200,000 because of the capacities of the universities. Every year, the number of candidates taking Universities Matriculation Examination (UME) keeps increasing, but the spaces are limited.

I can bet you the number will keep increasing. If care is not taken in the next five years, we will have four million candidates writing Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination and Universities Matriculation Examination.”

In a similar reaction, Prof. Julius Okojie, Executive Secretary, National Universities Commission(NUC) used these words: “Every year, there is always the problem of access to education in the country. This year alone, over one million candidates are taking UME, but unfortunately, we have placements for only 200,000. Meanwhile, places in colleges of education and polytechnics are usually undersubscribed because everybody wants to go to the universities.”

Going by the pronouncements of Ojerinde and Okojie, over 800,000 candidates who sat for UME have been thrown out.

The introduction of Post-UME test/screening and Federal government policy on admission stipulating the number of students a university can admit (quota system), have worsened the admission situation.
Ojerinde, on Post-UME test scoffed: “One thing not pleasing to me is the way some universities conduct their post-UME tests. It has become a source of money to them, instead of a source of standardising the procedure. But not all of them.”

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UI students in protest recently
While acknowledging that there are some universities who still use JAMB’s Universities Matriculation Examination and they are using it very well, he said, if he had his way, “with time, post-UME test will no longer be necessary.”

At the 2008/2009 Technical Committee meeting on Admission to Degree-Awarding Institutions held recently in Kaduna, he decried “unnecessary dissipation of energy and waste of resources involved in the conduct of post-UME,” adding, “some state governments and universities had requested JAMB to use only the results from the UME conducted by JAMB for admission to universities for the new session.”

Ojerinde had warned universities against ignoring completely UME scores of candidates as such won’t be tolerated and urged them to lay bare their modus operandi for combining UME results and post-UME scores of candidates they had listed for admission.

In Nigeria today, we have close to 95 universities (conventional, technological, specialised, federal, state and private). About one million or slightly above make up the total Nigerian undergraduate population currently, with older institutions such as UI, UNILAG, ABU, UNN, OAU, UNIBEN, and others like LASU, UNIPORT, UNICAL, DELSU, BUK, UNIMAD, AAU, UNILORIN, UNIJOS, each alone having over 40,000 students.

Compared to when the total Nigerian undergraduate population was 210 in 1948, this explosive rise in both the number of institutions and of students is so phenomenal that it could not have been so readily predicted. In a population that exceed 140 million, those that can benefit from tertiary education (university, polytechnic and college of education) runs into several millions.

What will happen to the remaining 800,000 candidates, many of them qualified for admission? Sit for JAMB again and probably suffer the same fate, year in, year out?

This probably explains why there are so much desperation, manipulations, influence peddling, gratification, cutting corners, corrupt tendencies, all to gain admission into universities.

University authorities usually come out with two, three or even four admission lists for a new academic session. That of 2008/2009 has followed this familiar pattern.

The first is merit list, published in some national newspapers. This is followed by supplementary list which can come intermittently for candidates whose names did not appear on the merit list and asked to purchase change of course forms to fill vacancies still existing in the various faculties and departments.

Pressures are often mounted on the Vice Chancellors, registrars, admission officials, by parents and others who have connections in the society. Many candidates with the requisite aggregate score and even far above, but lacked access to the people that matter in the university may not be considered.

Vanguard Education Weekly closely monitored the admission process and what is happening across all the levels in the education sector.

Most principal officers including vice chancellors and registrars who spoke to Vanguard said they won’t compromise transparency, merit and integrity.

One of them said: “In this university, we don’t bend the rules, transparency is uppermost here, because I don’t know who is watching over me. We do what is right, and won’t compromise no matter the person asking for favour. We have a score which every candidate seeking admission must have.

Pressures come from people above but my personal integrity is at stake. We strictly adhere to the aggregate score as laid down by this university. I won’t sacrifice my position to satisfy the admission yearning of someone who did not have the required score.”

He advised parents and guardians whose children did not score the required aggregate mark for admission, to go back and encourage such children to sit for JAMB again and take their studies seriously.

Many parents and admission seekers are complaining about being denied admission. But they don’t realise that spaces are not just enough for qualified candidates. Some of them can be seen hanging around the universities, pleading and begging to be considered.

Admission into basic secondary education is also being plagued with complaints and worries.

Several months after entrance examinations and interviews were conducted into the 102 federal government colleges, otherwise called unity colleges, no admissions have been offered into the junior secondary school segment. Over 20,000 children sat for the common entrance while 19,000 were called for interview.

A fee of N3,500 was paid by a child for the examination. But up till now, the children are still awaiting results of the interview and their admission.

Chief M.C. Nwaru, a concerned parent asked how long will these affected children stay at home.

“The first term is almost gone. Result of the interview yet to be released for the children to resume. Government should speak out on the matter so that parents should not be in the dark. We’re tired of telling our children different stories about their resumption.”

Asked what he wants to be done, Nwaru answered: “They should release the results so that parents can prepare these children for resumption. Government must act fast to save the children from frustration as they are the future leaders of the nation. Further delay is not in the best interest of our educational development. All parents are worried.”

http://www.vanguardngr.com/content/view/22183/79/