Nigeria is a country where the policy makers don’t think beyond the sight of their nose or perhaps, she's God’s own way of humoring mankind. It’s so hard to fathom the shallow thinking cum decision that the Minister of Education and other relevant stakeholders in the education ministry came up with, that the 2016/2017 University admission status of a candidate will be determined his/her JAMB score and O-level result grades points.

JAMB was established by the government to create a level playing ground for all candidates seeking admission to Institutions of higher learning in Nigeria. But years after its inception, it was concluded that the examination body had outlived its relevance in conducting a smooth and hitch free examination devoid of large scale malpractices as it was been witnessed before the advent of Post UTME. Therefore, Universities had overtime proven that their examinations are more competent, hitch free, giving equal chances and a good determinant of truly intelligent students.

Candidates therefore had been watching and waiting silently for the modalities and decisions to be adopted by the relevant authorities concerning this year admission after the government frowned against conducting another examination after the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination. But to the surprise of everyone, the Minister of Education and all other decision makers came up with an awkward decision of judging a candidate admission status by his/her JAMB score and O-level result points which could be of different years entirely.

This is a terrible decision which speaks volume of the quality of leadership we have in this country. According to the laid down rules, the minimum requirement for the admission into the country’s tertiary institution is a credit pass in relevant O-level subjects with a good UTME score but with the new development, it shows that a candidate with C6 all through will have to swallow the bitter pill of no admission.

A relevant case study is the Premier University, the University of Ibadan who as a result of government changing the rule in the middle of the game came up with an O-level grading system where A1 was allocated 6 Points, B2- 5 Points, B3- 4 Points, C4- 3 Points, C5- 2 Points and C6- 1 Point, thereby giving our young school leavers unnecessary high blood pressure. With this grading system, a candidate with six C6 grade is equivalent to one A1.

Let us not forget that WAEC and NECO examinations are not given the respect they enjoyed years ago when they were seen as dreadful even outside the shores of the continent due to the level of malpractices that takes place when candidates sit for the examination. Basing admission status of candidates on WAEC/NECO and JAMB grade point is tantamount to asking for more fake and undependable results as this will invigorate the so called “miracle centres” in helping students acquire doctored results at the expense of the thoroughly breed hardworking students who burnt the midnight candle to acquire their hard earned credits.

If this decision is not reviewed and rescinded, I forsee an increase in the percentage of students advised to withdraw in their first year since we all know there will be no hiding place for large scale malpractice which is a norm both in O-level and JAMB examinations.

I cannot but pity my country as she’s ignorantly heading for doom maybe not now but perhaps, later in the future with this rash decision taken by our so-called education administrators. To the disadvantaged candidates who were caught unaware by the change in the rules while the game was ongoing, I implore them to take heart and hope for the best.

In fact, it's unfortunate.
How do we explain denial of admissions with 300+ UTME scores because of Cs in olevel?
I know such candidates who chose UI.
They refused to change to schools that add utme to putme scores to determine aggregates even with the leverage their utme scores promised them.
They sticked to UI who only required 200 of their UTME scores with the confidence of 'blasting' putme which used to be the only determinant of cut off.
Lo and behold, they got bursted with this new point system.
Does C grades mean 'fail'?
I sincerely hope something is done to ensure justice.
Peace.

It's an unfortunate decision my brother

its a very sad decision, but until a top school comes out publicly to voice against the system, it wont change by next yr. For now it seems all schools are comfortable wit d new system and if not ,none has come out publicly to say otherwise.

Many dummies would end up gaining admission this year only to be withdrawn after 100 level.

catal:
its a very sad decision, but until a top school comes out publicly to voice against the system, it wont change by next yr. For now it seems all schools are comfortable wit d new system and if not ,none has come out publicly to say otherwise.

Let's keep our fingers crossed and see what happens

Uniben4sure:
Many dummies would end up gaining admission this year only to be withdrawn after 100 level.

Sure

The most infuriating thing is the silence from some concerned quarters.
After the initial news of the policy that flooded the media, no one seems to care about follow up. Not even Mallam Adamu, JAMB, NASS (when it wasn't a removed budget 'pad') or media.
What happened to the earlier released admission guidelines?
The lamentation of the oppressed shall be atoned by the Supreme being.
Peace.

1afrika:
The most infuriating thing is the silence from some concerned quarters.
After the initial news of the policy that flooded the media, no one seems to care about follow up. Not even Mallam Adam, JAMB, NASS (when it was a removed budget 'pad') or media.
What happened to the earlier released admission guidelines?
The lamentation of the oppressed shall be atoned by the Supreme being.
Peace.

Nigeria is a country where anything goes