After so many policy multiplications, power-drunk tussles, varieties of confusing information, instructions lopsidedness, and institutional horse-trading, the Ministry (or Minister) of Education, Nigeria University and other Tertiary Institution Commission, and the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) finally came to a consensus as to the way and manner that candidates who have qualified for and have been given provisional admission by JAMB will be screened into our higher institutions.
According to the guidelines released on JAMB website on 5th July, 2016, the modalities would be points accumulation system. This means that for a candidate to be considered for screening to get admission, he/she must have been given provisional admission by JAMB. Secondly, points are to be evenly spread out between O’level and JAMB results. A candidate who submits only one result (WAEC, NECO, NABTEB, ect) which contains his/her relevant subjects earns 10 points while those with two sittings only gets two points. Thirdly, each O’level grade has its equivalent point; A is 6 marks, B is 4 marks while C is 3 marks. Fourthly, UTME score has its equivalent points too. For those who scored 180-200 their points range between 20-23. Those who scored 200-250 (24-33points); 251-300 (34-43points); while 300-400 (44-60 points).
Furthermore, cut off marks will be released by schools in form of points and not marks. Also the classification of admission on the basis of merit, catchment area and Educationally Less Developed States (ELDS) is still maintained and the points shall range accordingly. Meanwhile fees will still be charged for the screening. The bottom line of the whole screening exercise is that, even when JAMB have granted a candidate a provisional admission, such candidate may lose the admission if he/she falls short of the required points as stipulated by the higher institution.
A critical content analysis of the foregoing leaves much to be desired. The first being that, prior to the year 2005 when aptitude test commenced, of all the uproar that the exercise amassed, the point that the Universities Dons used to substantiate their argument in favour of the implementation of the ‘Aptitude Test’ was that the knowledge of most candidates seeking admission cannot match up with the impressive O’level result and high JAMB scores they possess.
They speculated/accused the WAEC, NECO, NABTEB and JAMB standard and process of being porous, and boasted that the ‘Aptitude Test’ will present a water-tight and more reliable platform whereby only truly qualified candidates will get admission and this will also serve as a threshold to churn out graduates that can be vouched for in terms of character and learning. Thus, as long as the higher institutions were concern, O’level and JAMB score were not a reliable medium through which admission should be granted a candidate.
Therefore, it was most surprising to learn about the latest modalities for admission which was massively influenced especially by the Universities. For the higher institutions to now place reliance on O’level and JAMB scores as the basis to grant admission, the same standard they have so criticized and used as a ladder to climb to the throne of aptitude test, can for want of proper description, and with utmost respect, be likened to a dog eating its own vomitus.
That aside, reactions from the way and manner in which the current screening exercise is being conducted makes the whole experience debilitating. Candidates are only expected to work into the hall, show their O’level and JAMB result and walk out. One has expected that since O’level has been brought to the fore, the higher institutions would have waited for WAEC, NECO, NABTEB (especially the ones written by students of secondary schools) results to be out before commencing the screening. Because as it is now, candidates who filled awaiting results, especially those who just finished from secondary school are most likely to be screened out for want of O’level result.
Another challenge with the current pattern of screening is that it is most likely to encourage nepotism, patent-clientele and favouritism. It may be deciphered, going by the statement on JAMB website with regards to the screening exercise that JAMB may not be monitoring the whole exercise. Because in the website, JAMB advised candidates that “praying is all you can do now”. They further said, “JAMB provisional admission no longer makes much sense this year, your points tally decides your faith”. And then they concluded by saying, “so, the provisional admission is just a means to an end, not the end itself”.
Going by this, it appears as though the supervisory mandate of JAMB over the screening exercise has been expunged and leaving the higher institutions with the exclusive reserve to screen and give admission. If this is so, then rooms have been created for the ‘who knows who’ to give admissions to their cronies, relatives and bidders, thus denying the actually qualified candidates the chance of being admitted on the guise or justification that either they could not get the requisite points or too many candidates qualified that the admission space could not accommodate. In the era of aptitude test at least one can be assured that a hardworking candidate may be admitted on merit. We have had situations where candidates who managed to score 180 in JAMB eventually scored the highest in aptitude test.
On the whole, it is obvious that the current screening exercise by higher institutions tend not to assess the candidates on anything extraordinary, because the candidates are just expected to come into the hall, drop their O’level results and JAMB result and immediately leave the hall. To be modest, it is rather an act of giving a confirmation to O’level and JAMB performance which the same higher institutions have severely criticized of being unreliable.
But if however, the exercise has come to stay, the following is recommended to make the exercise probable. That the screening exercise be conducted after all the whole O’level results (especially the ones written by students of secondary schools) are out. That since the Ministry of Education has approved candidates to sit for two examinations, the disparity in point between one result and two results should be expunged or brought closer, for example ten points for one result and eight points for two results. That since the higher institutions can on their own verify the O’level results and JAMB scores, the need of candidates paying for screening and travelling all the way to the institution just to present these documents which have already been uploaded online should be discountenanced. That JAMB officials should join and monitor the higher institution in the screening exercise.
If these recommendations are not implementable, then a reversal to the former process is advocated, because it would be a case of the higher institutions licking their vomitus. Already, our education sector is at an emergency state, further injuries may spell doom for us.
AWHEN EMMANUEL OGAH is a Legal Practitioner, Essayist and Poet.
