… say process not transparent enough
Some parents in the country have faulted the conduct of this year’s Post-Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination, popularly called Post- UTME, by tertiary institutions for candidates seeking admission.
The parents claimed that the Post-UTME was not the best way to test candidates for admission into tertiary institutions, especially into the universities.
They argued that the inability of the various universities to properly conduct the Post-UTME was the reason many eligible candidates seeking admission could not have space in the universities.
The Post-UTME was reintroduced by the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, in August this year, while making the announcement of the minimum cut-off marks for entry into tertiary institutions.
He had said cancellation of Post-UTME was a mistake, adding that the ban on post-UTME led to a lot of irregularities by candidates and some institutions.
Adamu had expressed optimism that a substantial number of candidates, who sat for the 2017 UTME, would gain admission into tertiary institutions.
But despite these measures, it was gathered that several candidates, who wrote the last UTME and wished to gain admission into universities still could not, even having scored good grades in the UTME.
Our correspondent, however, also gathered that they could not be admitted because they failed the Post-UTME test conducted in their schools of choice.
A parent, Mrs. Mistura Adeyemi said that her son, Olaoluwa scored 251 in the examination conducted by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board and his West African School Certificate Examination was good, but after the Post-UTME at Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-ife, Osun State, he was not given admission.
She said, “I am not in support of this Post-UTME test because at the end of all the efforts, the candidate can’t still get admission.
“I am not a parent that buys results for my children. I believe in what they can do themselves. So, I can say with all boldness that my son passed the UTME and WASSCE without any assistance from anywhere, but with this their UTME test, they said he was not qualified.”
Another parent, Mr. David Oluokun, said that the issue with admission was not with JAMB but the universities, which were not doing the right thing.
“The truth is that no matter the measures put in place, admission process will still not be properly done. I feel the minister of education and the JAMB registrar still have work to do, because, with this process, eligible candidates can’t still get admission,” he said.
Mr. Olatunde Abiodun said that it was not surprising that the universities claimed that the candidates failed the Post-UTME test, because the condition under which the student wrote the test was not conducive.
“Everyone heard of the situation where students fainted during the process of writing the Post-UTME at the University of Lagos, Akoka; or the situation where an examination that was scheduled for 10am was not written until 7pm in the night. I am not saying that Post-UTME is not good, but universities need to check the system and do it right,” he said.
An educationist and Chief Executive Officer, Edumark Consult, Mrs. Yinka Ogunde, said all hands must be on deck, when it came to the education sector in the country.
She applauded the reintroduction of Post-UTME, but said the minister of education, the JAMB registrar and the Executive Secretary, National Universities Commission needed to look deeply into the system so that brilliant and eligible candidates would not be denied
admission at the end of the process.
