The former Executive Secretary, National
Universities Commission, Prof. Peter Okebukola, has criticised the
recently announced method of admitting students into tertiary
institutions, saying it amounted to admitting candidates blindly.
Okebukola, who spoke on the sidelines of
the 2016 Speech Day and Prize Giving ceremony of Queen’s College, Yaba,
Lagos, on Monday, said that the current guidelines put in place for
admission of candidates into Nigeria’s tertiary institutions would only
allow unqualified candidate to be admitted.
Okebukola, who was reacting to the
recent cancellation of the Post Unified Tertiary Matriculation
Examination (UTME) by the Federal Government, said the criteria were
still unclear to stakeholders.
The Joint Admissions and Matriculation
Board (JAMB) had on July 10, clarified that the 2016 admissions would be
conducted purely on the three existing admission pillars of merit,
catchment area and educationally less developed states.
It added that candidates were to present
their Senior School Certificate Examination (SSCE)/Advanced Level (AL)
results for verification and clearing purposes.
The Minister of Education, Malam Adamu
Adamu, had announced the cancellation at a recent meeting on the
selection of candidates for admission into tertiary institutions.
Adamu had also warned that any institution that went contrary to the directive would be sanctioned.
He added that institutions were,
however, at liberty to conduct their screening by cross-checking the
SSCE results of the candidates that must include five credits, including
Mathematics and English Language at a sitting.
Okebukola said: “Actually, I must say that we do not know where we are heading to yet.
“The reason is that both the JAMB and
the universities under the umbrella of Association of Vice-Chancellors
of Nigeria Universities (AVCNU) are not even sure of the criteria.
“We have yet to have any clear view of
where we are going yet, but I suspect that in another one week or two,
we are likely to know where we are going.
“As of now, the environment is still very cloudy on the post UTME thing,’’ he said.
Narrating how the post UTME came about,
Okebukola said: “During my tenure as Executive Secretary, it started in
the form of screening.
“It was aimed at getting quality candidates into our tertiary institutions, especially the universities.
“It all happened that in 2002, some of
the vice-chancellors after the UME came to me on a Sunday after the
examination the previous day.
“They reported that there was a big
issue in a particular university which I will not like to mention but
they complained that almost half of the students of the university sat
for the UME.
“And when I asked why, they said some
persons who are candidates of UME used these students to write the
examination for them as mercenaries.
“It then dawned on us that some of these
people that normally brandish high scores are not really the true
owners of such scores’’.
He said that it became apparent that there was a need insert into the question of admission another layer of filtering.
He added that the development was what informed the screening put in place at that period.
Okebukola said that if the institutions
were to produce quality graduates and earn the respect of other climes
in the country’s education system, it was the way to go.
He added that after due consultation
with the Directors of NUC on the issue, it was further discovered that
the development on the admission process was predominant all over the
place.
Okebukola said that a meeting with
between NUC and JAMB under the watch of the then JAMB Registrar, Prof.
Salim Bello, was also convened to discuss the development to find the
way forward.
“I was indeed pained and resolved that we must find a way of getting quality graduates into our universities.
“We urged JAMB to conduct their
multi-choice text, which is only testing candidates’ cognitive potential
and which does not test how they speak English and how they write.
“And because we also found out that many
of these candidates that take this examination are very poor in both
written and oral English, we felt there should be another layer of
screening.
“However, I must emphasise that we did not label this screening as post UTME test or whatever.
“We called it Post UME Screening even though we had initial challenges with the National Assembly,’’ he said.
Okebukola added that the then President,
Olusegun Obasanjo also restated that JAMB’s law allowed it to do its
test and did not allow the universities to do any test.
He said that following the response, the
NUC and the then Minister of Education, Prof. Chinwe Obaji, decided to
go to the National Assembly to clarify issues.
The don said that it was agreed that there should not be any form of multiple-choice examinations again on the CBT platform.
He added that in its place would be oral questions and some essay writing in order to assess the candidates’ writing skills.
Okebukola said this agreement was reached with the National Assembly and the message conveyed to the universities and JAMB.
According to him, it was agreed that
after the multiple-choice UME, the universities should carry out the
essay and oral screening as well as physical appearance.
The screening, he said, was also to
ensure that such candidates’ appearances did not portray them as touts
or cultists in spite from their academic proficiency.
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