The recent statement credited to the Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu, that the Federal Government will soon scrap the Post-Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (Post-UTME) has generated controversy among stakeholders in the sector. The Minister, who revealed this at the 2016 combined policy meeting on admissions to tertiary institutions in Abuja, said that government would soon set in motion the machinery that will bring post-UTME to its logical end.
Adamu, who expressed confidence in the UTME conducted by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), argued that it was unnecessary for individual institutions to conduct a separate examination to guarantee admissions, when JAMB already performs such functions.
Adamu’s position on the matter has elicited diverse comments. While many stakeholders appear to support government’s decision to stop the post-UTME in view of inherent abuses, some others have lampooned the government for taking that decision that will make it easy for some “unsuitable” students to gain admission into the universities. The post-UTME came on board to correct some lapses in JAMB examination.
Overtime, it appears the post-UTME is being afflicted with the same ills it was set up to cure. Besides being a money-making venture for universities, the post-UTME has been trailed by the same corruption earlier associated with JAMB before it introduced the Computer-Based Test (CBT) format for its examination.
It will be recalled that the Registrar of JAMB, Prof. Dibu Ojerinde, had early last year predicted that post-UTME would stop following the introduction of the CBT examination mode. The JAMB boss had argued then that the CBT has helped to completely eliminate examination malpractice. With the adoption of the CBT format in UTME, the insistence on the post-UTME by universities appears to be unnecessary. Apart from being a duplication of effort and a money-spinner for the universities, it has been reportedly tainted with corruption.
It is not fair to subject a candidate to two examinations for just one admission. The post-UTME puts unnecessary pressure and trauma on the students who travel long distances for the examination. While we support any move that will ensure quality in our education system, we abhor the seeming emphasis on written examination alone.
We believe that one written examination is enough to admit a candidate into the university. The ritual of double examinations for one admission should be done away with. Prospective university students, who have passed the UTME, can still be screened through verification of their academic qualifications and biometric data as was previously the case. The universities need not charge money to do this.
For the post-UTME scrapping to be effective, government should assist JAMB to perfect its CBT format. All the noticeable blights and imperfections that characterise the last examination should be rectified. There should be strong effort to put JAMB in a better pedestal to conduct UTME in the country.
We, therefore, call on JAMB to expand the test centres and ensure that all of them are conducive enough for its examination. JAMB must ensure that only registered candidates are allowed to take the UTME.
The scheduling of the examination should be done in such a way that candidates are posted nearer their abodes. The examination should not be scheduled too early or too late. Another way to strengthen JAMB is to punish those that cheat in the examination. Let there be severe sanctions against cheating in examinations in the country as it is the case in China.
Also, let all the loopholes in JAMB examinations be blocked so that JAMB can be a standard examination for university admissions. There is no point subjecting candidates to multiple examinations before they gain admission.