Following the recent decision by the Federal Government of Nigeria to scrap the Post-UTME examinations or aptitude test as it was popularly called as the the means of getting admission into the Nigerian Universities, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has taken a stand against such a decision.
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) which is the body of all the Academic staff of every Nigerian Universities has criticised the decision by the the Federal Government of Nigeria to hand over everything about admission into the Nigerian tertiary institutions to JAMB as the sole body to conduct exam and admit students into the institutions.
Since the inception of the Post-UTME which allowed the universities to conduct their entrance examinations in 2005, it has drawn a lot of headlines with so many calling for it to be sustained while some quarters also argued that its a way of stressing the candidates both financially and otherwise after they might have performed well in the JAMB UTME examinations.
The Nigerian senate in particular, had at some point brougth the issue up for debate at the floor of the house. Despite these efforts, the POST-UTME survived the last decade and worthily so as it was observed that, those who performed extraordinarily in JAMB do not usually show the same wit in the POST-UTME and vice versa. This raised some dust over JAMB's ability and methods as there were even accusations of special centres with special candidates who end up with such high JAMB scores.
Speaking to Newsmen on monday in Abuja, ASUU national president, Biodun Ogunyem voiced out his dismay. He rejected the decision to allow the Joint Admission Matriculation Board (JAMB) cannot be solely responsible
for conducting examinations into the country’s higher institutions.
He called such decision unfortunate and went further to state that it undermines the authority of the University senate as the highest decision making body as it concerns admissions and result in the universities.
“The cancellation of post-UTME, to us, portends serious danger for
the quality of education in this country. The argument of federal
government on the policy is unacceptable and potentially harmful to the
future of Nigerian’s education system.”
“Such statement coming
from the minister was unfortunate because JAMB should not be saddled
with the responsibility of solely conducting entrance examinations into
the nation’s tertiary institutions.
“We call the attention of the
honourable minister of education to the fact that post-UTME is a child
of necessity and rationality, and a decision that Nigerian universities
had to take when the credibility and integrity of JAMB examinations and
results became questionable.
“When universities were admitting
solely on the basis of JAMB scores unimaginable discrepancies were
observed in the JAMB scores of candidates and their performance in the
first year in the university.
“Consider a candidate who got a JAMB
score of 290 out of a maximum of 400, yet had to withdraw from the
University at the end of the first year on account of very poor
performance. It is important to note that this happened not in isolated
cases. Virtually all universities reported such cases.
“The
University of Ibadan conducted a study on the correlation between JAMB
scores and performance at the University, and reported a negative
correlation between the two. The results were published in the Ibadan
Journal of the Social Sciences. The introduction of Post-UTME was based
on sound empirical evidence”.
We call on the government to rescind
its decision and convene a genuine stakeholders ‘ meeting on the issue
before making any policy statement.”
Well, we will have to wait and see how all these will play out. ASUU for sure knows how to hold the Nigerian Government to ransome while pressing home for a demand.
Nigerians please leave comments below on your thought on the FG decision and possible stand off with ASUU.
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