By Dayo Adesulu

When the students who sat for the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examinations, UTME, received their results, those who scored above 200 were elated that  2015 is their year of admission into universities of their choice.

PROTEST: Parents stage protest in front of University of Lagos over school’s admission cut-off mark, accusing the institution of refusing to accept JAMB’s approved cut-off mark of 180 and has imposed its cut-off mark of 250.

However, their joy and hope of admission was short lived when the almighty JAMB came up with a new policy last week to reallocate candidates to other universities they did not choose.

The development has generated criticisms from stakeholders in the sector, questioning the competence and credibility of the umpire. While many people threw aspersions on the university authorities, many more are heaping the blame at the door step of JAMB, saying the examination body should be held responsible for the hiccups.

Many stakeholders who questioned the rationale behind the new policy believe a lot of things are wrong with the examination body saying that, instead of subjecting its  candidates to the admission stress, why not allow them, from inception, to approach the university of their choice directly for admission.

Those calling for the scrap of JAMB said they can recall the various inadequacies associated with JAMB in the process of conducting examinations for their children in the last UTME.

Insufficientexam centres

At first, it started with registration of candidates for computer based test, followed by complains of insufficient examination centres which resulted into  posting of students outside the state where they registered for the exams. Subsequently, some students who registered in some states were posted to other states like Kwara, Osun, Oyo for UTME.

The development did not sit well with many stakeholders as candidates who could not travel  alone were compelled to go with their parents. Which suggested that if such parents were to be civil servants, they  would have to seek for permission from their bosses, pay for transport, book for a hotel and pay for feeding for those two days. All in the name of seeking for admission.

Meanwhile, the excuses tendered by JAMB  at that time were; insufficiency of computers and centres for the examinations. This was the same JAMB that generated about N10.6billion from students’ registrations. Each candidate paid N6,250 for registration, just as about 1.7 million candidates registered. Why must students be subjected to untold suffering for the laxity of the examination body, parents queried.

Moreover, when candidates were filling the JAMB forms, they were specifically instructed by JAMB to choose, one university, one polytechnic and one college of education, which candidates complied.

Newpolicy

Now the latest is the new policy where candidates will be redistributed to universities based on the discretions of JAMB authority against the wish of the candidates. Students are saying that they were not carried along and argue that the decision is against their wish.

According to some of the students who spoke with Vanguard, a lot of things are put into consideration before a candidate decides to choose an institution. Some of the factors include; tuition fees, efficient programme, proximity to mentioned a few. JAMB should therefore explain to the public the criteria used to transfer and send names of candidates to various universities.

PROTEST: Parents stage protest in front of University of Lagos over school’s admission cut-off mark, accusing the institution of refusing to accept JAMB’s approved cut-off mark of 180 and has imposed its cut-off mark of 250.

Reactions: Mr. John Kuye, one of the parents said: ”My daughter, who scored 222 in the UTME, chose University of Ibadan as first choice, but her name was shorlisted for post-UTME at Ayo Babalola University. My daughter had since rejected it. As a teacher, where do I get the money for private university.”

Also, Mr Kenneth Ehigiator lamented the untold sufferings JAMB had subjected him and the son to since the introduction of CBT to the redistribution policy. He said: “UNILAG was the first choice of my son who scored 205, but was not short-listed for post-UTME.

Cut offmark

I knew how I had to travel with him to Osun state for UTME because JAMB relocated his centre from Lagos to Osun.’’On his part, Sunny Bling said:’’Please, I am concern about the increase in cut-off mark for UNICAL and other university to study law. At UNICAL is 239 and it was not like that before. The government should talk to JAMB  to reduce the cut-off mark so that students could gain admission.’’

Mr Adeshina Sule said: ‘’I beg to reserve my comment till after Monday 5. But one can easily deduce from the rag tag defence from JAMB so far as a quick move to cover up a gone awry corrupt agenda.’’ Reacting to the brouhaha that greeted the new admission policy,  the Head of JAMB, Lagos, Dr. Beatrice Okorie explained that the effort was only geared towards helping candidates of oversubscribed institutions gain admission to other federal or state universities rather than wasting their scores.

She said: “If we had not done this, many of the candidates would have fallen prey of the universities’ money-making machine –  post-UTME, without securing admission even with their high scores.” Using the University of Lagos as an example, she noted that its carrying capacit is 5,000 students, yet it has about 32,000 candidates struggling for the slots.

“What we have done is to take those who didn’t meet the  cut-off points of UNILAG based on merit, catchment areas and the educationally less disadvantaged areas, but who have chances of securing admission in other federal and state universities and push them there to write post-UTME tests,” she added.

Speaking with Vanguard, Professor Oyesoji Aremu, Director, Distant Learning, University of Ibadan said: “JAMB’s decision to unilaterally, willfully and ‘forcefully’ re-distribute candidates whose scores are below 250 from the six Federal universities classified as the most sought institutions, is the most malicious and distressed policy ever made by the Board.

“I have personally x-rayed JAMB’s reasons for doing so and found same not to hold water by any standard. JAMB’s claims were that: a pruning mechanism, enhancing universities ranking and making them the best globally, and not to jeopardize the right of some candidates. These reasons are not only baseless and unfounded, they are also unthinkable of a board like JAMB.

“One, does JAMB possess the power to prune? Prune what and in whose interest? It is the traditional right of respective universities to prune through their admission policies who and who can attend such universities. JAMB is not a clearing house. “Two, the board’s reason that its decision is to enhance the six universities’ ranking to make them the best globally: When did the board usurp the power of National Universities Commission?

“Again, how would admission assessment to universities improve ranking when UTME’s scores having been found through studies not to have correlated with eventual academic performance in undergraduate programmes in Nigerian universities?

Aremu further said: “Setting aside some universities as the best is none of JAMB’s business. The idea of making candidates who score less than 250 and ‘exporting’ them to other universities is to make them inferior to their counterparts whom JAMB claimed should be given a priority. More often, candidates who score high flying marks in UTME are found not to do better than others who don’t score as much in universities’ post-UTME. These are facts.

According to him, ‘’JAMB’s claim that the policy is not to jeopardize the candidates’ chances is not strong. Why would the Board want to cry more than the ‘bereaved’? It is practically against the right of choice and association of the candidates. How can the Board change the rules of the game in the middle of a game? It is not done. Abinitio, the candidates and their parents/guardians have decided and chosen the universities they want.