The Joint Admissions Examination Matriculation Board (JAMB) has been publicly Overtime,
Nigerians at various levels have decried the undue bureaucracies involved in the process of gaining entry into tertiary institutions.
Every year more than a million Nigerian youths sit for the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination set by the Joint Admissions Examinations Board (JAMB) to compete for a space in the about 500,000 spaces available in the 250 tertiary institution which includes 117 universities, 71 Polytechnics while 111 are Monotechnics, college of Agriculture and health technologies in Nigeria.
Passing entrance exam may be a benchmark for gaining admission into various universities and higher institutions across the globe, but in Nigeria, the reverse is the case as candidates who passed the UTMÉ are flagrantly denied admission due to a ridiculous reason of no space in the university of choice.
In this year’s UTME, a total of 1,493,604 sat for the exams, out of which 597,495 scored above 200. Although 160 and 180 were set as the cut off mark for polytechnics and universities in Nigeria respectively, it is obvious that the current number of universities are simply not enough to meet the demand of the increasing Nigeria youths who sit for JAMB yearly and pass.
Meanwhile, the 2011 UTME was full of ups and down and trailed with so many controversies; candidates were charged an exorbitant fee of N4,500, with a promise that writing materials including calculator will be given to them at the examination center. However, to the disappointment of the students, no writing materials were provided, students ended up running helter skelter to get writing material and of course most of them were unable to get calculators (which probably led to the massive failure in UTME).
The biometrics screening procedure did not help matters either, as it caused a lot of delay. Probably this contributed to 2011 UTME being poorer than 2010 results with forty percent getting 200 and above while last year saw over forty one percent getting 200 and above
These anomalies have overtime stirred the key players in the education sector to query the rationale behind JAMB result not being valid after one year, unlike other examinations in Nigeria and other countries across the world, especially as the candidates are put through difficulties situations.
Other issues that arose as the imbroglio progressed is the rationale behind JAMB selling 1,493,604 forms to its aspiring candidates when there are just about 500,000 spaces available in the various tertiary institutions in Nigeria. The issue of the relevance of JAMB in admission process also came into view as it is a well known fact that a large percentage of its candidate that excelled in its UTME end up not getting a place in Nigerian universities after the candidates must have been made to go through unnecessary hurdles, starting from biometrics registration process for UTME, to writing and passing the UTME and finally facing the post UME.
It is worthy to note that post UME came into play in Nigeria in 2005, following public outcry against the credibility of the examination conducted by JAMB, The dons in the university system insisted that students who passed JAMB were not able to defend their high scores, which led to the introduction of post UME by universities for candidates aspiring to be admitted into their universities. However, this has made admission into schools more difficult for Nigerian youths as Post UME in most universities are argued not to be transparent and the admission process influenced by the stakeholders of the school. Moreso, admission space in some schools now goes to the highest bidder.
It has become common place for qualified candidates who excelled in UTME to be denied of admission, regardless of their score in JAMB due to the limited admission quota allotted to tertiary institutions per session.
Due to this development, post UME candidates of a particular university in the east had at a time hacked into the university’s system and inflated their scores in bid to make sure that they gain admission into the university.
The public relations officer of JAMB Mr. Timothy Oyedeji in a statement made available to newsmen had revealed that many candidates seeking admission into Nigerian Universities will not be admitted, not because they have not scored high but wholly because of quota restraint.
Uchenna Ogugua a political analyst, in a public interactive forum held recently in Abuja pointed out that a legislation should be made for no UTME to hold until the backlog of candidates who passed UTME but could not be admitted because of limited space have been cleared. According him, “JAMB is not compelled to balance or refund the candidates that passed its exam but there was no space for them to be admitted into the university, a legislation should be made that no JAMB will be taken until the backlog has been cleared.”
A lecturer at Abia state university Mr. Ogbadinma Ikonne, speaking with LEADERSHIP was of the opinion that JAMB should last more than one year. “JAMB should not be having exam every year? School certificate results last for four to five years, why can’t JAMB too last for that same period too, JAMB syllabus does not change every year, so I see no reason why someone who doesn’t use his JAMB this year cannot use it next year or anytime he desires. Sometimes you see students that are looking for admission that passed but could not gain admission for one reason or the other, such as not using the university they are trying get admitted, as their first choice. When they are still undergoing the process of fixing themselves in a school a new UTME will be taken and their result will expire, then they will end up losing two years if they are not admitted after all.”
Some students who sat for UTME shared their experiences with LEADERSHIP. Ify Nwagboso who wrote JAMB during her preliminary studies at Abia State University Uturu said: “I wrote my JAMB exam in Port Harcourt. The exam was supposed to start in the morning but we were delayed till evening when other centers had finished writing their exams. The examination hall was very rowdy when we were writing the exam, the fault was from JAMB as they brought the exam late. However they seized our results, I tried everything to get my result, but when my uncle went to JAMB office to check my result he was told I was absent for the exam. All my roommates saw me going to write JAMB, they were all surprised when I went to check the result and saw absent.
Another candidate Chiom Ubaka stated, “I wrote UTME in 2009 and scored 250. I wanted to gain admission in the Nnamdi Azikiwe University, and I wrote the post UME but couldn’t make it. So I had to write another JAMB in 2010 and I still did not get law. I settled for another course, although I still met people that my score was very much higher than theirs in law faculty.”
Considering the persistent challenges faced by Nigerian youths trying to gain admission into tertiary institutions a source in the National University Commission who doesn’t want his name on print talked on plans to increase the number of universities in Nigeria.
According to him, “presently what we have is 400,000 students being able to gain admission out of over one million or two. Within the next five years we are expecting that with the establishing of more private universities and federal universities, more students will be able to go in. The long term projection is that within the next five years, at least 800,000 students to be able to gain admission. It is already a sustainability plan. Government has said that we must work on strategy on how to expand accessibility. What we are trying to do is to ensure that the existing ones are strengthened by sufficient funding so that they will improve the existing facilities. At the same time, we’ll make sure that in the next five years more private universities will be licensed depending on whom and who is ready, based on our stipulated guidelines.”
criticised over several issues ranging from why its result is valid for only a year, to its relevance in admitting students into higher institutions with the presence of post-UME, as well as the issue of low enrolment proportion. Uche Uduma analyses the situation