₦airaland Forum

THE AFTERMATCH OF THE CANCELLATION OF POST UTME EXAMS.
Institutions abide by the FG's "No Post UTME" rule but made admissions worse. Aspirants were still made to pay for screenings not conducted, some were asked to travel long distances, risking their lives at extra expenses, only for submission of documents, making the reasons for the abolishment of Post Utme exams to be utterly defeated in the first place.
As if those are not enough, institutions came up with disheartening admission modalities. Some just released admission lists after collecting aspirants money in the name of admission screening registration. Their criteria for admissions remained puzzles to many. Some even released results with no clear information on how the results were arrived at. Some publicized their scoring systems combining Olevel grades and UTME results of varying proportions.
Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife used 70/30 UTME/Olevel with two subjects' grades in addition to the five relevant subjects to the chosen courses of study. University of Lagos and University of Ibadan used 50/50 UTME/Olevel with different styles. All these grading systems are contrary to the admission guidelines obtainable atwww.jamb.gov.ng.
The 50/50 scoring system looks just and fair but it's not. Let's examine University of Ibadan system (obtainable from www.ui.edu.ng). A1-6, B2-5, B3-4, C4-3, C5-2 and C6-1. Five relevant Olevel subjects are graded and the total divided by 30, then multiplied by 50 give X. UTME score divided by 400, multiplied by 50 gives Y. X+Y gives the aggregate which must not be less than 50 for a candidate to be qualified for admission consideration. Is this actually 50/50?
200 UTME score was advertised as the minimum score to be eligible and at least 5 credit passes in either one or two sittings depending on course of study. A candidate with 200 in UTME already has 25/50 in UTME but a candidate with C6 in all his five required subjects has just 8.3/50 in Olevel. 50/50 indeed! A candidate with C5 in his five relevant subjects and 250 UTME scores has 47.9 as aggregate which mean he can't be admitted whereas another candidate with B3 in his five relevant subjects and 200 UTME has 58.3 as aggregate and can be admitted. Aspirants with below credit in each of five Olevel subjects have 0/50 in Olevel while aspirants with UTME scores below 200 can score as high as 24.875 on this scoring system. Candidates with two Olevel sittings, even though advertised as allowed, will have the points scored from the second result halved before it can be added. Is this justice coming from the Senate of an ivory tower?
The above is just one of the various awkward admission modalities employed by our tertiary institutions for this year's admission and yet the Federal Government, civil organizations, National Assembly and the Media had been silent on this issue affecting about a million of this country's "future leaders". I call on President Muhammadu Buhari's lead administration to see to this as this is the first admission that will be fully conducted under the watch of his government. Is this the change we deserve in the nation's admission process?
Kindly let something be done in earnest to prevent these injustices and impunity. In preparation for next admission, there should be a stakeholder's meeting on admission process, duly publicized and let each institution publish her peculiar admission guidelines to enable students make the best choices. Not changing the rules when the game is on.
God bless Nigeria.