Nigeria’s Education Minister, Malam Adamu Adamu has reiterated that the ban on Post Unified Tertiary matriculation Examination is with immediate effect, and under no circumstance should any institution violate the directive.
Post Unified Tertiary matriculation Examination, otherwise known as Post-UTME is conducted by Tertiary Institutions for admission into Universities and other higher institutions of learning in Nigeria.
While giving the directive on Monday in Abuja, the Minister explained that although he had made the issue known earlier, but emphasis has become necessary in order to ensure that no stakeholder is left in doubt as to government position on the Post UTME matter.
He said the responsibility for admission into public tertiary institutions lies solely with the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) and under no circumstance should any institution take over the responsibility by proxy.
“For the avoidance of doubt, any educational institution after secondary education is regarded as a tertiary institution. Therefore all tertiary institutions, Polytechnics, Colleges of Education, Universities or by whatever name it is called after secondary education must be subjected to admission through the JAMB. At the end of probationary admission by JAMB, the candidates can be cleared (screened) for final admission. For any institution with a shortfall in admission, such institution can revert to JAMB for supplementary admission. Clearing in this case (screening) entails only the verification of certificates of the candidates, JAMB scores, and any other physical examination to ensure that such candidates are not cultists. After this, the candidates are qualified for matriculation. Such screening should be at no cost to the parents or students and should be done upon resumption in order to avoid unnecessary travels in search of admission,” the Minister explained.
Malam Adamu decried the situation where final year students in Nigeria secondary schools are subjected to too many examinations all in one year, describing it as traumatic, exploitative and absolutely unnecessary.
According to Adamu, mere admission into the University does not guarantee any student the award of a degree until such a student successfully goes through a minimum of eight examinations (for 4-year courses) or ten and twelve examinations (for 5 and 6 year courses), among other requirements.
The Minister expressed worry over reasons why any university would not be satisfied with examining a student for eight, ten or twelve times for the award of a degree, but would rather sort to conducting entry examinations.
He said Universities are at liberty to expel any student who fails to meet up with the requirements of the award of any degree enrolled for.
The Minister also stated that there has been no empirical evidence to show that since the inception of Post-UTME, Universities have been having better quality students, but that students are still being expelled on a yearly basis for low performance even as they gained admission through Post-UTME.
Plight of parents/Guardians
Furthermore, Malam Adamu said he is deeply concerned about the plight of parents/guardians who spend fortunes on transportation, hotel accommodation, examination fees and sundry costs, just for their wards to gain admission into Universities, that such practice negates the Buhari Administration’s resolve to make education affordable for Nigerians.
The Minister said he is also mindful of reported cases where some staff of tertiary institutions take undue advantage of the girl-child in her quest to gain admission into the system.
He acknowledged some cases where parents die in the process of travelling to secure admission for their wards, and never live to see those children through, a situation he described as painful and avoidable.
compliance
The Minister has however directed the National Universities Commission (NUC) and appropriate departments in the Ministry to communicate the directive to relevant agencies and institutions to ensure strict compliance.
Malam Adamu warned higher institutions that have already advertised for the conduct of the Post-UTME under any guise to stop the exercise immediately as any university caught conducting Post-UTMNE will face appropriate sanctions.
“if any tertiary Institution has already conducted Post-UTME, such an exercise stands annulled and money taken from such candidates must be refunded immediately,” the Minister added.
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