Only qualified candidates should write UTME
Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) Prof Is-haq Oloyede recently declared that 40 percent of candidates who annually write the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) do not have the requisite qualification to do so. Oloyede also said 80 percent of the over a million candidates that usually do not secure admission into […]
Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) Prof Is-haq Oloyede recently declared that 40 percent of candidates who annually write the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) do not have the requisite qualification to do so. Oloyede also said 80 percent of the over a million candidates that usually do not secure admission into tertiary institutions are wishful admission seekers. This is because they sat for UTME without obtaining necessary O’ Level requirement of credit passes in five subjects including English and mathematics.
Oloyede made these declarations at the 2016 Nigerian Higher Education Summit organized by the Committee of Vice Chancellors of Nigerian Universities in partnership with Trust Africa, Dakar and the National Universities Commission, NUC. The theme of the Summit was ‘Exploiting Diversity and Quality Assurance in Revitalising the Nigerian Higher Education System’. Oloyede also refuted the claim that only about 500,000 out of the 1.5 million candidates who sit for the UTME annually get admitted into universities, saying such claims are ‘shameful statistics paraded all over Africa.’
The existing practice in which no educational qualification is required for eligibility to apply and sit for UTME lends credence to the JAMB Registrar’s claims. Candidates who failed to obtain a minimum entry requirement of five credit passes in five subjects including English and Mathematics for admission into universities as well as students in the final year of their senior secondary education (SS3) who have not sat for WAEC, NECO or NABTEB examination let alone obtain any results are some of the groups of unqualified candidates that sit for UTME annually. Even students who, by their intellectual ability and cumulative records of assessment, are doomed to fail in their Senior Secondary Certificate Examinations (SSCEs) wishfully apply and proudly sit for the UTME. Indeed, UTME in Nigeria has become a free-for-all test that can be written by anyone who desired to do so.
One adverse consequence of this practice is the unnecessarily huge number of candidates which JAMB and universities in the country have to grapple with in the admission process every year. Regrettably too, some of these unqualified candidates and wishful admission seekers secure admission places that they cannot utilize, thus blocking the spaces that candidates with requisite entry requirements could have taken advantage of. While the writing of UTME by unqualified candidates amounts to a waste of time on the part of candidates and misappropriation of resources on the part of parents, it is misapplication of energy for both.
All these shortcomings that are characteristic of the existing practice justify the call for a critical review of UTME with a view to defining eligibility of candidates who wish to apply and write the exam. We call on the authorities at JAMB to deliberate over this with relevant stakeholders. There should be no provision for candidates who are awaiting their WAEC, NECO or NABTEB results to sit for UTME. Candidates who failed to acquire minimum entry requirements for admission into universities and other tertiary institutions should also be excluded from writing UTME. With such provisions, the number of candidates seeking admission would reduce to a relatively manageable size that JAMB and admitting institutions can cope with.
JAMB is an examination body founded by the federal government to conduct entrance examination for prospective undergraduates into Nigerian universities. Since its establishment in 1978, JAMB has undergone various policy reforms that have helped it to improve upon its statutory mandate. For example, the University Matriculation Examination (UME) was replaced in 2010 with the UTME in order to provide one examination platform for candidates seeking admission into all tertiary institutions in Nigeria. The post-UTME which was introduced in 2004 as a second level of screening was scrapped in 2016. After 35 years of administering Paper and Pencil-Based examination, a Computer-Based mode of examination was introduced in 2013. It is now time for JAMB to undertake another reform and preclude unqualified candidates from sitting for UTME.