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Uncertainty Over Post-utme As Minister Speaks- PUNCH by promise4040: 6:23pm On Jun 07, 2016 |
Seventeen-year-old
JohnPaul Okeke has not
been his usual boisterous
person since last Friday. In
fact, throughout the
weekend, the youngster,
who attended St. Francis
Catholic Secondary School,
Idimu, Lagos, wore a
helpless look. At the centre
of his helplessness was last
Friday’s news report that
the Federal Government has
scrapped the post-Unified
Tertiary Matriculation
Examination.
Occupying the youngster’s
mind is how this year’s
university admission is
going to take shape. Will
the nation’s universities
revert to the pre-2004
admission models where
the Joint Admissions and
Matriculation Board had the
exclusive rights to offer
candidates admissions? Will
some of the universities
assert their autonomy this
year as they did in 2004
during the tenure of the
then Minister of Education,
Mrs. Chinwe Obaji?
These and many more were
worries disturbing the
peace of the young man,
who wants to study Law at
the Nnamdi Azikwe
University, Awka, Anambra
State. Already, he scored
268 in the UTME held earlier
in the year.
This same dilemma
confronts many of the
candidates looking forward
to securing admission to
higher institutions in the
country this year.
Apart from this, some
universities have already
conducted this year’s post-
UTME, just as many have
advertised and collected
examination fees from
admission seekers.
Indeed to clear this
impasse, our
correspondent gathered
exclusively that the Minister
of Education, Mr. Adamu
Adamu, would speak on
Tuesday (today) on the
issue.
A Deputy Director (Press) in
the Federal Ministry of
Education, Mr. Bem Goong,
confirmed this to our
correspondent on Monday.
“Well, if you want further
clarification on the issue,
wait for Tuesday. The
minister will speak on it”,
Goong told our
correspondent.
The minister had while
declaring open a Combined
Policy Meeting on
admission to universities,
polytechnics and other
higher institutions, on
Thursday in Abuja, said it
was unnecessary
subjecting candidates to
another round of
examination after the UTME
conducted by JAMB.
But while many
stakeholders like the
former Pro-Chancellor of
the University of Lagos,
Chief Afe Babalola (SAN),
have criticised the move to
stop the post-UTME, the
immediate past Executive
Secretary of the National
Universities Commission,
Prof. Peter Okebukola, says
there is need to handle the
issue with caution.
According to Okebukola,
the post-UTME as practised
in many of the universities
nowadays is far from what
stakeholders agreed on in
2004.
He notes, “It was a tough
battle which we fought
under the leadership of
Mrs. Chinwe Obaji as
Minister of Education. We
got the blessing of former
President Olusegun
Obasanjo and the National
Assembly to do the
following: (a) maximum
charge to candidates for
the exercise should be
N1,000; and (b) candidates
should be screened not
with the kind of test used
by JAMB but through other
mechanisms. The screening
was agreed with all vice-
chancellors to be through
oral interview and essay,
which JAMB’s assessment
does not cover.
“More than ever before, we
need to admit into our
universities, secondary
school leavers, from the
large pool, who have at
least two characteristics. (A)
They must have the
minimum cognitive
competence in the relevant
subjects in the discipline
they wish to study; and (b)
competence in written and
oral English, critical thinking
and ability to present ideas
in logical sequence
befitting of undergraduates
in Africa’s most-expansive
and well-regarded
university system. JAMB’s
UTME targets only the first
characteristic; while the
university-level screening
should measure the
second.”
Contributing, the VC,
Redeemer’s University, Ede,
Osun State, Prof. Debo
Adeyewa, calls for a more
appropriate concept of
“screening” to select the
best candidates for
university education.
He states, “In the first place,
we need to recollect the
circumstances that
necessitated the post-UTME
examination by universities.
The examinations
conducted by JAMB were
not credible and every
sincere citizen of this
country would readily attest
to this. The ‘fantastic’
scores obtained through
JAMB were neither
correlating with the results
of post-UTME conducted in
universities nor with their
poor performances after
admission. In fact, we
found that the most
credible and reliable range
of scores were those
within 200 – 240 marks.
“Although the credibility of
JAMB scores has improved
recently with the computer-
based examinations, it is
too soon to conclude that
the credibility issue has
been put to rest.
“It is also important to
realise that each university
is autonomous and could
decide on the parameters
for admission, including the
need for interviews. I
would subscribe, therefore,
to the more appropriate
concept of “screening” to
select the best candidates
even if post-UTME is
scrapped.”
Meanwhile, a lecturer in
the Department of
Psychology, Obafemi
Awolowo University, Ile-Ife,
Osun State, Prof. Toba
Elegbeleye, says the
scrapping of post-UTME
and adopting 180 as the
cut-off mark would only
make a bad case worse.
The JAMB Registrar, Prof.
Dibu Ojerinde, last Thursday
also pegged the qualifying
cut-off mark for candidates
at 180 points.
But Elegbeleye says, “There
is a reason we got to this
path and that reason was
that the admission
conducted by JAMB was a
little bit untidy and we
discovered that it lacked
every element of validity
because a student that
scored 380 could get to the
university and not be able
to pass a single course.
“That was when
universities decided that
they should be granted little
autonomy to determine the
kind of candidates they
want to admit. So,
somebody should give a
very robust and sound
reason why the mark
should be cut down to
180.”
He avers that it is wrong to
force all higher institutions
to operate at the same level
in terms of what
determines their admission
criteria. |
Re: Uncertainty Over Post-utme As Minister Speaks- PUNCH by promise4040: 6:36pm On Jun 07, 2016 |
punchng.com/uncertainty-post-utme-minister-speaks-today/ |
Re: Uncertainty Over Post-utme As Minister Speaks- PUNCH by promise4040: 6:48pm On Jun 07, 2016 |
promise4040:www.punchng.com/uncertainty- post-utme-minister-speaks- today/ |
Re: Uncertainty Over Post-utme As Minister Speaks- PUNCH by lacasera14(m): 7:05pm On Jun 07, 2016 |
okay |
Re: Uncertainty Over Post-utme As Minister Speaks- PUNCH by U4jay(f): 7:26pm On Jun 07, 2016 |
Issorait... |
Re: Uncertainty Over Post-utme As Minister Speaks- PUNCH by horlawharley(m): 10:20pm On Jun 07, 2016 |
So wats the minister final stand now |
Re: Uncertainty Over Post-utme As Minister Speaks- PUNCH by figment232(m): 5:39am On Jun 08, 2016 |
M horlawharley:The Minister has no say in this matter.The Universities are an autonomous entity. |
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