Still on the ban on post-UTME

In spite of the ban on post-Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (Post-UTME), the Bayero University Kano (BUK) recently conducted a written test for candidates seeking admission into the university. Media reports indicate that candidates were directed to go into halls at examination venues after which they were given sheets for the test. A candidate who sat […]

In spite of the ban on post-Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (Post-UTME), the Bayero University Kano (BUK) recently conducted a written test for candidates seeking admission into the university. Media reports indicate that candidates were directed to go into halls at examination venues after which they were given sheets for the test. A candidate who sat for the test confirmed to reporters that the screening was in the form of objective test.
BUK’s Director Public Affairs Alhaji Ahmad Shehu said the institution had not violated the federal government’s directive on post-UTME. Deputy Director Press and Public Relations in the Federal Ministry of Education, Mr. Ben Bem Gong said any institution that violates the earlier directive on post-UTME will be sanctioned. It would be recalled that Minister of Education Malam Adamu Adamu had at a stakeholders’ meeting in June 2016 banned the conduct of any written test for candidates seeking admission into Nigerian tertiary institutions. He said such responsibility lay solely with the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB). The Minster also warned that under no circumstances should any institution take over that responsibility by proxy.
Soon after the minister’s declaration, some universities defied the ban by advertising their screening schedules in newspapers, directing candidates who applied to such institutions to visit their portals for online registration. Besides the airtime which candidates had to pay for at cyber cafes in order to complete the online screening form, candidates were also required by the respective universities to pay between N2,500 and N3,000 as administrative charges. This non-compliance to the ban on post-UTME by universities prompted the minister, while announcing the scrapping of the second round of test organised by the National Examinations Council (NECO) last July to reiterate government’s commitment to the ban on post-UTME. He advised vice chancellors to strictly comply.
The window for post-UTME ‘screening’ was created by the Public Relations Officer of the National Universities Commission (NUC) Ibrahim Yakassai who, while interpreting the minister’s pronouncements on the ban, said universities were still at liberty to ‘screen’ candidates and that ‘screening’ in this context includes verification of candidates’ UTME slips, SSCE results and other sundry admission documents. The fear that universities could exploit this interpretation of the ban by advancing ‘screening’ into paper and pencil test has now come to pass.
Through the online registration and screening of candidates by almost all universities in the country, public and private, institutions have succeeded in subjecting candidates to the same circumstances over which post-UTME was banned. The screening test conducted by BUK for the UTME candidates is a further confirmation that post-UTME, in spite of its ban, is yet alive. Some of the factors that informed the ban on post-UTME include needless duplication of efforts through written tests (UTME and post-UTME) for one admission exercise; the risk of travelling on Nigerian roads over long distances; the psychological stress which candidates are exposed to in the post-UTME exercise; and the extortion called administrative charges by universities. Therefore, inviting candidates to varsity campuses before admission for any ‘screening’ purposes violates the ban on the exercise. The online screening should suffice for authenticating candidates’ documents.
Indeed, it was for the purpose of forestalling extortion in the admission process that Malam Adamu Adamu instructed JAMB to stop charging N1, 000 per candidate for the scratch card used in accessing UTME results online. But vice chancellors who have become desperate in recent times for Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) would not listen to the minister’s directives.
Universities lack justification to charge fees for the online screening of candidates. Screening of prospective and even newly admitted candidates is part of the routine administrative duties of university staff, academic as well as non-academic. This is why screening fees are not charged during the screening exercise of admitted candidates. We recommend that universities be directed to refund monies collected from candidates in the name of post-UTME screening. While Daily Trust suggests the cancellation of the post-UTME screening tests conducted via paper and pencil, we also recommend the sanctioning of universities that conducted such tests.