How Post-UTME candidates failed the spellings of Lagos, Obafemi Awolowo and Nnamdi Azikiwe
Practical proofs of our falling education standard
By Chika Abanobi
Prof. Chinwe Onyema Obaji, Nigeria’s Minister of Education, from June 2005 to June 2006, under Chief Olusegun Obasanjo administration, before she was succeeded by Mrs. Obiageli Ezekwesili, from June 2006 to April, 2007, shocked her audience recently when, in her call for urgent reinstatement of the abrogated post-UTME (Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination), introduced under her regime, she told the stories of how a student failed the spelling of Lagos, when asked to write on how he spent his last holiday, and of how some candidates who were seeking for admission to read Political Science at Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife and Nnamdi Azikiwe University (UNIZIK), Awka, failed the spellings of the names of the two political legends.
Failing the spellings of Lagos, Awolowo and Azikiwe
“When I came in 2005, I was already angry with the system because I had taught for 25 years and I knew there was no correlation between JAMB (Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board) scores and actual performance of students in the class,” she said at the one-day maiden education summit organised, at University of Lagos (UNILAG), by Education Writers Association of Nigeria (EWAN), the umbrella body of education editors, correspondents, reporters in the print, online and broadcast media in the country, as part of their social responsibility initiatives. “I knew that things were growing worse and worse. You had graduates who if you asked them a question, would answer you: ‘I does not know.’ I also knew that we had ‘miracle centres’ all over the place. The rot was already there.
“One of the questions that we asked candidates in those days was: ‘how did you spend your last holiday?’ Is that a serious question? But you needed to read what some of the candidates who were said to have scored 300 out of 400, wrote. One claimed to have spent his holiday in Lagos and he wrote the spelling in seven places and he got it all wrong; he could not spell Lagos correctly.”
She further informed: “We had some candidates who were supposed to read Political Science at Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), and who were asked the question: ‘Who is Chief Obafemi Awolowo?’ They couldn’t spell Awolowo; they couldn’t spell Obafemi. You had students who intended to read the same course at Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka (UNIZIK), and you asked them to write a short note on Nnamdi Azikiwe. They are Igbos, yet they couldn’t spell Nnamdi and they couldn’t spell Azikiwe. And, to worsen matters, they didn’t know whether he is a man or a woman. You are laughing? But that is the truth.”
A look at copies of our children’s answer scripts
To further buttress the point she tried to make at the EWAN education summit, having “Integrity of Public Examinations and Admission In Nigeria,” as its theme, and which necessitated her call for a return to the post-UTME, although in a modified form or its “original form,” to use the words of Prof. Peter Okebukola, (Executive Secretary, National Universities Commission, NUC, 2001-2007), Prof. Obaji later emailed to The Sun Education, some copies of answer scripts that you will never believe were written by kindergartens, much less ex-secondary school students seeking for university admission.
Post-UTME questions, as originally conceived by the Federal Ministry of Education, under Obaji and National Universities Commission, under Prof. Okebukola, was supposed to be in essay form, not multiple-choice, as was later the case, under successive ministers, before the current Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu, decided to completely do away with it.
Asked, in those days, to “briefly state any three types of business ownership,” a post-UTME candidate who reportedly scored 300 and something out of 400 in JAMB and who was seeking admission into UNIZIK, to read Business Administration, answered: (A) Ekene dilichukwu limited commpany (sic) (B) Piece (not Peace) transportation commpany (sic) (C) Suny (not Sony) elechronic (sic) company.”
Asked for the major role of Central Bank of Nigeria, he listed them out as (A) UBA (B) starded trust Bank (sic) (C) first Bank (sic). Another candidate gave his answer to the question thus: “the major road (not role) of the centre (not Central) bank of Nigeria is in Abuja where you flow (not follow, mind you) to Ikeja in Lagos State so that you bus out (burst out?) in Nigeria.”
How did you spend your last holiday?
Before you burst out in Nigeria or Cameroon or Chad or Niger Republic, if you are a secondary or ex-secondary school student reading through this, please, how did you spend your last holiday? That was one of the questions that post-UTME candidates were asked, years ago, and some of them, apart from the one that spelt “Lagos” wrongly, wrote these as their answers:
Sample 1: “I spent my last holidays with my husband, during time I has (was?) on honey moon (sic) I has (sic) opportunity to know my husband eatery (sic, eating habits?) well and the thing he likes must (most?) like his favourity (favourite?) food and when he like’s (sic) playing and reading.” On the answer script, the examiner gave her zero over twenty, initially, but later changed the zero to one mark.
Sample 2: “I sent (spent?) my holiday in the villige (sic) with my morther (sic) during the priod (sic; period?). She thought (sic) me how to coke (sic) and the same time (sic) How (sic) to farm. I have a good morther (sic) I can talk off (sic) with my friends (sic). Amaka stays in the villige (sic) with her father and she schools in the villige (sic) I also join (sic) her in etending (sic) evening classes them (then?), I enjoyed the way the Eglish (sic) Teacher (sic) teachs (sic) us.”
Sample 3: “I spent my last holiday in Akwa Ibom, To (not ‘in’, mind you) my uncle’s place; As I was going (sic), On the way, we meet (sic) Armed Robber (sic) on the Road (sic). All the Armed Robber (sic), wear Black and Black (sic), so all of them come and Search our Bags (sic) and our Pocket and the rising (and they were raising?) Gun everywhere (sic). I thank God that nobody on us (none of us?) died (sic).
He continued: “As I reach to my Brother place (sic; no longer an uncle, take note), I Just Bend and tell him what I saw on Road (sic; question: does this fellow need to bend before he can tell?). He was so embrass (sic) to hear my stories (sic; pray, how many of them?). As I spent about (2) Two months I was hungry to go Back to my Mother place (sic) and he Bought every thing I request to him (sic) and also he Bought some thing I will give my mother. As I am going I have no get any problem On the way again” (sic).
Remedial measures and political bottlenecks
On being hit with realities on how bad things were in the education sector, Prof. Obaji, at the summit, revealed that she got in touch with Prof. Okebukola and some other interested stakeholders. “I sent somebody to the universities to get me video of what the universities looked like at the time,” she said. “We had engineering students writing examinations on the floor or on the back of their fellow students. In the cafeteria where they were eating, I sent people and they went in there and bought Indian Hemp along with the cigarettes. The campus was nothing to write home about.
“It took me only three weeks as a minister to come up with the 45-point agenda on how to revive the education system. I sent to the Ministry of Finance to know what was spent on education between 1999 and 2004. I got these details and I sent them along with the video to President Olusegun Obasanjo. I said, ‘Sir, this is what we spent on tertiary education, from 1999 to 2004 and this video is what we have to show for it. And these 45-points is the way forward’.
“Obasanjo called me and said: ‘I knew things were bad but I did not know they were this bad. Please, whatever you can do to correct them, do.’ One of the measures put in place to remedy the situation was the post-UTME, which, regrettably has been scrapped but for which she and Prof. Okebukola are calling for its return, although in a more modified and effective form.
“It was not easy but because the commitment was there, we worked together as a team, including the students, and were able to get through what we were able to get through. I was going to ask whether things have changed from what it was eleven years ago. But the last time I checked up it is even getting worse. The question now is: are we looking for quality graduates or for quantity? There is no country in this world that has ever moved on with the quantity of graduates it has but with the quality.”
Exam and Admission Integrity
In the keynote address presented by Prof. Okebukola, he defined examination and admission integrity as “a system of examination and admission where the process and product meet approved standards and public confidence. For example, if the process of conducting an examination such as the Senior School Certificate Examination (SSCE) or the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) meets some specified standards in terms of quality of examination papers (with high validity and reliability indices), quality of examination administration; and quality of grading, then we can affix the integrity badge on that examination. On the product side, if the grades on the certificate issued have high predictive validity values and are not amenable to doctoring or forgery, then the examination has acceptable integrity. The process and product lenses also apply to admission. An admission exercise has integrity if it meets set quality standards with the process not compromised and the product by way of the admission list, enjoys public confidence.”
Calling for a return to the original format of Post-UTME before it was bastardized and later scrapped, he listed the indices as: “do not charge the candidates more than N1, 000. Second, ensure that you do not repeat what JAMB has done in terms of the multiple-choice exam. Thirdly, ensure that you test the students on Oral English and written English and for general appearance that will befit an undergraduate in the Nigerian university system. Go back to the basics. With regard to the Post-UTME, rather than outright abrogation or scrapping, it will be necessary to have it temporarily suspended to rethink the way we’d been doing it. It is only after that it can be re-instated.”
“The decision to adopt the post-UTME was not trivial; it was not something that just came up,” Prof. Michael Faborode, Secretary-General, Association of Vice Chancellors of Nigerian Universities (AVCNU), and chairman of the occasion said. “It came after very serious studies in various universities and a lot of discussions. Taking it off should not be a matter of voting on whether it should be retained or not. It needs to also be a matter of deep study and introspection. Of course, there are some areas that needs to be corrected, some of them have been highlighted by Prof. Okebukola.”
Submissions, reactions and objections
Reacting to the suggestion by Prof. Anthony Kila, of Oxford University, United Kingdom, and the moderator of the day’s programme, that the remuneration of lecturers or professors be tied to the performance of their graduates outside the school system, Prof. Biodun Ogunremi, (President, Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU), asked: “What are the drivers of productivity? Are we just talking about lecturers’ output? How about facilities for lecturers to be able to put in their best? How about funding? Do we get the funding right? Before we blame the lecturers, we must consider the operating environment. When you provide an enabling environment, then you can come back and say despite providing this and this, we are not seeing the right output. The productivity we are talking about is an outcome of input, process and output.”
Others who participated in the summit and who made presentations, are: Princess Sarah Adebisi Sosan, former Deputy Governor and Commissioner for Education, Lagos State and Mr. Ola Kafaru Babatunde, Head, Test Development Unit, West African Examination Council (WAEC), who was there to represent Mr. Olutise Adenipekun, the Head, National Office (HNO).
While Sosan made a case for concerted political will to push through education reforms, Babatunde who expressed his disappointment with Nigeria’s inability to clinch the “Best WAEC candidates award”, for three consecutive years, called for a reordering of our societal values to ensure that the standard is maintained.
“I enjoyed my boss’ support while I was in the office,” Sosan recounted. “And that was why I was able to carry out some reforms that I carried out. People went to Fashola to complain to him about some things they felt I was not doing right but he never listened to them. If we have people like him who are ready to support and stand by us, we will get it right.”
“I want to say that our standard is not only in Nigeria; it cuts across West African countries,” Babatunde said. “And, for the past three years, Ghana has produced the best candidates across West African region. We do the same exam, the same marking. And, like I said, the award is done jointly. So, where are we?”
Participation, participants and purpose
Apart from Princess Sosan, Profs. Obaji, Okebukola, Fakorode, Ogunremi and Kila, other high-profile personalities in the education sector who attended the summit include: Prof.. Rahamon Bello, Vice Chancellor, University of Lagos (and chief host of the summit), his Deputy Vice Chancellor (Academics), Prof. Oluwatoyin Ogundipe, Prof. Olumuyiwa Noah, who represented Lagos State University (LASU) VC, Prof. Lanre Fagbohun; the Chairman, Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP), Federal Polytechnic, Ilaro, Ogun State chapter, Mrs. Margaret Olowofila, who represented the National President of the union, Mr. Usman Dutse.
The list also include: ASUU immediate past and current chairmen from UNILAG, Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB); Olabisi Onabanjo University (OOU), Ago-Iwoye; University of Ibadan (UI); Lagos State University (LASU); Tai Solarin University of Education (TASUED); and representatives of Colleges of Education Academic Staff Union (COEASU); Association of Tutorial Centres; Alhaji Fatai Raheem, Chairman, League of Muslim School Proprietors in Lagos State, Mr. Sodunke Oludotun, President, Association of Tutorial School Operators of Nigeria, students and leaders of some NGOs.
Dignitaries expected on the occasion but who were absent for some unknown reasons were: Dr. Idiat Oluranti Adebule, Deputy Governor, Lagos State, Mallam Adamu Adamu, the Minister of Education, Prof. Charles Uwakwe (Registrar, National Examinations Council, NECO), Prof. Isiaq Oloyede (Registrar, JAMB) and Prof. Abubakar Rasheed (Executive Secretary, NUC).
Welcoming participants, EWAN Chairman, Mr. Tunbosun Ogundare, explained that education reporters were no longer comfortable sitting back to watch the education sector going down by the day without doing something to arrest the situation.
According to him, Nigeria experiences too often, policy somersault by successive governments, while the political class also plays politics with almost all aspects of national life without considering the consequences of such actions on education development, let alone the economy.
“So, it is high time we, as a nation, found permanent solution to admission crisis, recurring cases of examination malpractice at all levels, mass failure in the senior secondary school exams conducted by WAEC and NECO, quota system as against the merit principles, and graduates’ unemployability,” he explained. “And these, among others, are what this summit is aimed at addressing.”