JAMB: Okebukola censures FG over post UTME cancelation

The previous Executive Secretary, National Universities Commission, Prof. Subside Okebukola, has reprimanded the as of late reported technique for conceding understudies into tertiary establishments, saying it added up to conceding hopefuls indiscriminately.

Okebukola, who talked on the sidelines of the 2016 Speech Day and Prize Giving function of Queen's College, Yaba, Lagos, on Monday, said that the present rules set up for confirmation of competitors into Nigeria's tertiary organizations would just permit unfit possibility to be conceded.

Okebukola, who was responding to the late cancelation of the Post Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) by the Federal Government, said the criteria were still vague to partners.

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) had on July 10, cleared up that the 2016 confirmations would be led simply on the three existing affirmation mainstays of legitimacy, catchment territory and instructively less created states.

It added that applicants were to exhibit their Senior School Certificate Examination (SSCE)/Advanced Level (AL) results for confirmation and clearing purposes.

The Minister of Education, Malam Adamu, had declared the cancelation at a late meeting on the choice of possibility for induction into tertiary organizations.

Adamu had likewise cautioned that any establishment that went in spite of the mandate would be authorized.

He included that establishments were, in any case, at freedom to direct their screening by cross-checking the SSCE consequences of the applicants that must incorporate five credits, including Mathematics and English Language at a sitting.

Okebukola said: "Really, I should say that we don't know where we are making a beeline for yet.

"The reason is that both the JAMB and the colleges under the umbrella of Association of Vice-Chancellors of Nigeria Universities (AVCNU) are not by any means beyond any doubt of the criteria.

"We have yet to have any unmistakable perspective of where we are going yet, yet I think that in another week or two, we are liable to know where we are going.

"Starting now, the earth is still extremely shady on the post UTME thing,'' he said.

Describing how the post UTME came to fruition, Okebukola said: "Amid my residency as Executive Secretary, it began through screening.

"It was gone for getting quality applicants into our tertiary foundations, particularly the colleges.

"Everything happened that in 2002, a portion of the bad habit chancellors after the UME came to me on a Sunday after the examination the earlier day.

"They reported that there was a major issue in a specific college which I won't prefer to specify however they griped that half of the understudies of the college sat for the UME.

"Also, when I inquired as to why, they said a few persons who are hopefuls of UME utilized these understudies to compose the examination for them as soldiers of fortune.

"It then occurred to us that some of these individuals that ordinarily wave high scores are not by any means the genuine proprietors of such scores''.

He said that it got to be clear that there was a need embed into the subject of affirmation another layer of separating.

He included that the advancement was what educated the screening set up at that period.

Okebukola said that if the foundations were to deliver quality graduates and gain the admiration of different climes in the nation's training framework, it was the approach.

He included that after due meeting with the Directors of NUC on the issue, it was further found that the improvement on the confirmation procedure was transcendent everywhere.

Okebukola said that a meeting with amongst NUC and JAMB under the watch of the then JAMB Registrar, Prof. Salim Bello, was likewise gathered to talk about the advancement to discover the route forward.

"I was to be sure tormented and determined that we should discover a method for getting quality graduates into our colleges.

"We encouraged JAMB to direct their multi-decision content, which is just trying applicants' subjective potential and which does not test how they communicate in English and how they compose.

"Furthermore, on the grounds that we additionally discovered that a hefty portion of these applicants that take this examination are extremely poor in both composed and oral English, we felt there ought to be another layer of screening.

"In any case, I should underscore that we didn't mark this screening as post UTME test or whatever.

"We called it Post UME Screening despite the fact that we had starting difficulties with the National Assembly,'' he said.

Okebukola included that the then President, Olusegun Obasanjo likewise restated that JAMB's law permitted it to do its test and did not permit the colleges to do any test.

He said that taking after the reaction, the NUC and the then Minister of Education, Prof. Chinwe Obaji, chose to go to the National Assembly to clear up issues.

The wear said that it was concurred that there ought not be any type of various decision examinations again on the CBT stage.

He included that in its place would be oral inquiries and some paper writing so as to survey the applicants' written work aptitudes.

Okebukola said this understanding was come to with the National Assembly and the message passed on to the colleges and JAMB.

As indicated by him, it was concurred that after the numerous decision UME, the colleges ought to do the paper and oral screening and in addition physical appearance.

The screening, he said, was additionally to guarantee that such applicants' appearances did not depict them as touts or cultists in disdain from their scholarly capability.


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