JAMB still bent on revenue drive?

Uji Abdullahi Iliyasu reports that despite public outcry against JAMB in its attempt to turn to a money-making agency of government, by allowing over a million candidates to register for UTME amid limited spaces in the nation’s higher schools, it still allows post-UTME test and beats its chest as government’s revenue driver at the expense of the masses.

JAMB’s mandate

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) was established in 1978 with the mandate to conduct unified examination for candidates seeking admission to universities, polytechnics and colleges of education to ensure standard. But later in its history, the higher school authorities lost confidence in JAMB’s capability to conduct valid examination for admission seekers in tertiary schools. This prompted every higher school to conduct post-Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (post-UTME) test. This test is conducted according to the whims and caprices of tertiary school managements without any standard, thus defeating the primary objective of establishing the exam body.

The post-UTME like its mother body, JAMB, has become a fast revenue generating avenues for higher schools. And admissions, stakeholders say, are given based on cash and carry.

Calls for JAMB’s scrapping

In April 2017, Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), University of Ibadan (UI) chapter called on the federal government to scrap the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB).

The chapter chairman, Dr. Deji Omole, in Ibadan said the board had outlived its usefulness and reducing the standard of admission processes, hence it must be scrapped immediately to allow universities set a new standard of admission.

Omole stated that the nation could no longer trust the future of the younger generation to JAMB.

“Since Professor Oloyede did not consider it appropriate to resign after failing the whole nation, I think the minister of education, Mallam Adamu Adamu, should not hesitate to sack him.

“Why will anybody make life difficult for candidates whose parents are struggling to live under the terrible condition the government has made them to live in? This is where people are duping Nigerian children. This is a total failure. Students must have at least three months for registration, its procedure must be open and their options to public universities must not be limited to serve the agenda of the proprietors of private universities,” he said.

JAMB destroying education?

In August 2017, a columnist Luke Onyekakeyah writing in The Guardian, said,  “Two shocks in the tertiary education sector that have jolted Nigerians, once again, show how the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) is geared towards ruining the future of Nigeria. It also proves the much-talked about need to scrap JAMB, which has outlived its usefulness, to allow universities admit qualified candidates.”

Onyekakeyah said the minister of education, Mallam Adamu Adamu and JAMB registrar, Professor Ishaq Oloyede were behind JAMB’s problems and asked President Muhammadu Buhari to save the future of this country by reversing their retrogressive decisions on the board.

“First is the appalling and disgusting slashing of university cut-off marks from an awful and lamentable 180 (45 per cent) to a deplorable and scandalous 120 (30 per cent). It is like the 180 score didn’t get Nigeria at the jugular, which the 120 is now out to accomplish. Without equivocation, these say much about the direction the country is heading.

“The second is the re-introduction of post-UTME test that was banned barely a year ago by the minister of education, Adamu Adamu. What is a post-UTME test going to achieve when failures, who scored 30 per cent in JAMB are admitted? Is it possible for candidates who scored 30 per cent in JAMB to score 80 per cent in post-UTME test? This is most unlikely and would call for investigation if it happens.”

The new cut-off points

When slash in the cut-off points for admission into Nigeria’s tertiary institutions was announced by JAMB, NANS condemned it in unequivocal terms. Also, a legal luminary and university administrator, Afe Babalola, rejected the 120 score, and many more Nigerians who would not be heard.

 They all agreed that any university worthy of its name would not admit a 30 per cent scorer as a good material.

“Coming to the lifting of the ban on the post-UTME test, there is no doubt that the universities want the post-UTME test for monetary purposes. The test is not there to get the best university materials. Why test someone who has already failed with 30 per cent?” Babalola stated.

JAMB registrar, Professor Ishaq Oloyede said the cut-off marks for universities were set for 120 (30 per cent); polytechnics and colleges of education 100 (25 per cent), while that of innovative enterprising institutes was pegged at 110 (28 per cent).

In July 2016, former Executive Secretary, National Universities Commission (NUC), Professor Peter Okebukola, criticised the JAMB’s method of admitting students into tertiary institutions, saying it amounted to admitting candidates blindly.

NANS’ threats

On August 26, 2017   the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) urged the federal government to scrap JAMB if the board failed to reverse the low cut-off points for admission into universities and polytechnics. National Public Relations Officer of NANS Bestman Okereafor told journalists in Enugu.

 They said as the most important stakeholder in the education sector, their demands must be met or they it would call for the scrapping of JAMB. “Conclusively NANS will not hesitate to call for the scrapping of JAMB if the decision is not withdrawn without further delay.”

Post-UTME tests, how legal?

In October 2017, Senate urged Federal Ministry of Education to scrap post-Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (post-UTME) test, which has become an avenue for higher school authorities to make money at the expense of poor parents.

This followed the adoption of a motion sponsored by Umaru Kurfi, during one of its sessions.

Senate also urged JAMB to initiate a strategy to ensure the efficiency and integrity in the conduct of the nation’s tertiary institutions’ entrance examinations.

The lawmakers argued that the introduction of the post-UME examination had failed to remedy the problems associated with JAMB and as such, its continuous existence has posed more challenges for the nation’s education.

The federal government had once stopped the examination only for it to resurface a year later.

“Cancellation of post-UTME was a mistake,” Minister of Education Adamu Adamu said at the 2017 policy meetings on admissions into tertiary institutions in country.

Many Nigerian students believed that the minister of education acted upon pressure from lecturers to allow scoop revenue from students.

Court ruling

In March 2018, Federal High Court, Abuja, has declared the post-UTME test conducted by universities, polytechnics and colleges of education in Nigeria as illegal.

The court said there was no extant law authorising the exercise.

The court held that “only JAMB could conduct matriculation examinations and give admissions to tertiary institutions by virtue of section 5 (1) (2) of the JAMB Act”.

Cut in JAMB fees

In 2018, the federal government announced a reduction in the cost JAMB and National Examinations Council (NECO) registration and examination fees. Applicants under the new dispensation will pay N3, 500 as JAMB examination fees against the previous fees N5, 000; N9, 850 for Senior Secondary Certificate Examination (SSCE), from the current N11, 350 being paid and N4, 000 instead of N5, 500 for Basic Education Certificate, which is also handled by NECO. The new reductions were announced by the Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu.

Aware that the reduction in registration fees would be a draw on the revenue drive of JAMB, the officials of the board now take take advantage of the rise in the number of candidates to raise its revenue.

Limited admission spaces

In October 2018, JAMB said 200,000 candidates were offered admission by the board, for the 2018/2019 academic session, out of over

1.6m candidates who sat for its UTME. The head, media and information of JAMB, Dr Fabian Benjamin disclosed this in Lagos.

 “We have so far offered not less than 200,000 first choice admissions to candidates.

“To this effect therefore, we are urging candidates to go to our site and check their admission status and those who have been offered such admission should quickly indicate by accepting and printing such offer, as failure to do so will automatically mean the candidate is no longer interested…,” Benjamin said.

In the 2019 registration, JAMB has already registered over 1.6m, and targeting two million.

Out this figure, if 200,000 candidates are taken in the first choice institutions and say 100, 000 are given admission to second choice institutions, which is rare, where will the balance of 1.3m candidates go? Where will the revenue generated by the candidates go? Why won’t JAMB set registration limit for candidates knowing that there are limited spaces in the nation’s tertiary institutions?  Would a critical Nigerian be judged wrong to say JAMB has not yet abandoned its revenue generating drive?

According to the National Universities Commission, there are 600,000 places in all public and private higher education institutions. Thus, the number of applicants far outstrips the enrolment capacity of existing approved tertiary institutions.

In this year, JAMB said not less than 1.8m candidates would be registered for its 2019 UTME by the end of the registration scheduled for February 21. Thus, at the end of the whole exercise, about 300,000 candidates will get the admission, and this cycle of exploitation continues on yearly basis. Then, where is JAMB’s mandate as a social service provider?

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