Some parents have expressed worry over the backlog of admissions following incessant strikes by ASUU in the country.

Due to challenges of industrial actions and the Coronavirus-induced break, most public tertiary institutions have backlogs of candidates yet to be officially admitted with results of the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) conducted in 2021.

The new results released by the examination body will, therefore, constitute another backlog for many of the institutions.

The parents, who spoke in separate interviews, yesterday, in Abuja, were concerned that the action might affect admission process for candidates who sat for previous and the just-concluded examination.

Mr Andrew Agada, a civil servant and parent said that his older daughter was still awaiting admissions after successfully attaining high score from last year’s UTME.

He said that his younger daughter also sat for the just- concluded exercise but was now worried that the strike by the ASUU might also slow down the entire process or leave them stranded.

“Not many of us have the money to take out children to private universities and even if you can take one, what happens to the others.

“I have a daughter who’s still waiting for admission from last year’s JAMB and her younger sister just scored high too in the exercise that just finished.

“I am grateful to God for these successes. However, as a parent with the incessant strikes by universities and other institutions, I’m also worried about when they will finally be admitted without wasting time and the resources parents keep expending.

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“Especially with these continuous strikes by the institutions, I sincerely urge the government to please prioritise the education sector to make for a smooth system for our children. It is worrisome.”

Mr Moses Moses, a parent and business man, also said “Firstly, I asked why will our children sit for the JAMB examinations while universities’ union were on strike.

“I didn’t see the essence because JAMB is part of the education sector and getting admissions into these same striking institutions begins from there.

“It means our children and wards will, if successfully writing and scoring the desired points in the UTME, will continue to wait for the strike to be over before the process continues.

“By then, I don’t think the process will be transparent anymore because, there will be carry over from previous exercise and then look at those yet to graduate in the institutions. Everything is jammed up now.

“Let’s not continue to mess up the system, this is my humble plea.

“It is the duty of all stakeholders in the sector to ensure that the system was successful and well managed and not just allowing a particular group to suffer for these actions.”

Responding, Dr Fabian Benjamin, JAMB’s Head, Public Affairs and Protocol, said the board had been able to carry out its mandate as established and would continue to play its part responsibly.

He explained that the board was established for the general control of the conduct of matriculation examinations for admissions into all universities, polytechnics, monotechnics, colleges of education and recently added) Innovation Enterprise Institutes (IEIs).