French to be part of UTME from 2014

Minister of Education, Prof. Ruqayyatu Rufa'I, said on Thursday in Abuja that French language would be part of the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination as from 2014 for interested candidates, the News Agency of Nigeria reports.
Rufa'I said this at a reception held in honour of the French Language Project Manager, Mr. Jean-Phillipe Roy.
She said that being multi-lingual in the 21st Century was essential asit helps individuals to operate more effectively in the international community.
"For Nigeria, the study of French language is quite key, considering the fact that our neighbouring countries are French-speaking. Apart from the English language, French language is one of the major international languages," she said.
She said Roy came to Nigeria in 2009 under the second Bilateral Agreement between Nigeria and French.
The minister noted that the French had worked hard to ensure that various components of the project received due attention.
Rufa'i lauded his contributions to the reform of the UTME for 2014 in addition to the scholarships awarded to 16 teachers of French language to study in France for one month.
She said the project manager's contributions included supply of books to schools, award of Master's degree in French as a foreign language and supply of DVD and CD player to the project office.
The minister lauded the support of the French Government to the Nigerian French Language Village, Badagry, Lagos; and the Regional Network of French Language centres in Africa.
She also commended the Association of French Language Teachers, and noted the proposed handing over of the project vehicle to the ministry for the monitoring of the teaching and learning of the language.
"Nigeria and France have come a long way in their relationship. It is a relationship built on mutual respect, cooperation and interest. I wish to assure you that the ministry will continue to be committed to the teaching and learning of French Language in Nigeria and sustenance of the cordial relationship,'' she said.
Roy praised the collaboration between the Federal Government and the French Government.
"Since I have been here, you have shown a lot of interest in what we have been trying to do in terms of decision-making in critical issues and, with your help, we have been able to keep the project on the right track," he said.

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Nigerian Universities and the Bastardization of Admission Processes

Nigerian Universities and the Bastardization of Admission Processes
The processes of gaining admission into Nigerian universities have been bastardized by the trio of JAMB, respective universities and desperate parents. The once transparent admission process into Nigerian universities has degenerated into a cash and carry fraudulent system devoid of fairness, where the highest bidder carries the day. During our own time, there was so much anxiety over Joint Admissions and Matriculations Board (JAMB) examinations that students attended all manners of extra-mural studies to pass. With the passage of time, especially in the early nineties, graft entered into the JAMB admission processes. Some special centres and villages became centres of ‘expo’ and malpractices.
Constant malpractice coupled with incessant demands for university autonomy by lecturers under the aegis of Academic Staff of Nigerian Universities (ASUU), Committee of Vice Chancellors and other university pressure groups led to the acceding of the request for individual universities to set exams for prospective students. This led to the introduction of Post-University Tertiary Matriculation Examinations (Post-UTME) exams. This Post-UTME examination is yet to solve the problems associated with the earlier UTME, UME AND JAMB exams. In the first instances, parents have to send or travel with their wards to different universities to write Post-UTME exams. A student may travel from Enugu to Abuja to write Post-UTME for University of Abuja, and then travels again to Lagos to write for University of Lagos. criss-crossing thousands of kilometers across dangerous countryside to write exams. some parents still pay for their ward’s admission, Last year, a family told me that they paid N400.000 for their ward to read medicine in a university in LagosThis process disenfranchises those who are supposed to be on the merit list because highest bidders have taken over their chances. This is because some university staffers reserve lots of chances for themselves which they can sell or dispense as they deem fit.

Many of our youths have joined robbery, kidnapping and prostitution gangs because idle minds are devils workshops.
Nigeria’s Minister of Education Professor Ruqayyatu Rufai recently told a news conference that“out of the over 1.7million students that sat for the examinations in 2013, only 500,000 will gain admission”. This means that 1.2 million students will be disappointed. In 2012, 1,503, 931 students sat for the exams and about 450,000 was admitted. In 2011 it was 1,493,603 with about 420,000 getting admitted. In 2010 according to JAMB about 1,375,642 sat for the exams with spaces forless than 400,000. From the JAMB statistics, it is obvious that about 900,000 applicants were disappointed in 2010; 1 million applicants in 2011, 1.1 million others in 2012, 1.2 million ‘disappointed’ in 2013 and probably 1.4 million come 2014.
Two years ago the Nigerian Senate made attempts to scrap Post-UTME exams citing corruption and duplication of functions. The process failed because the lawmakers couldn’t find a common ground of acceptance. Around my residence in Abuja lots of brilliant students have been writing JAMB and Post-UTME exams for many years and yet cannot get admission. Some of them have gotten admitted only for their names to disappear from the merit list. According to their frustrated parents, the number on the merit list for some departments of their choice are not up to 20% while the rest is admission by favoritism. In the same neighborhood, some frustrated parents used political party links and corrupt processes to get their wards admitted.
The solution to these anomalies is for NUC to relax processes for establishment of universities.Their stringent condition is such that only mega funded billionaire institutions and individuals can dare it. How come Ghana is wooing Nigerian students to go there and study? They have enough quality schools to contain their applicants and they maintained qualitative small universities established at little cost. Secondly JAMB should ensure that individual schools admit at least 50% of those who write Post-UTME exams on the merit list. The amount of money spent on these Post-UTME exams should be reduced and if the universities cannot guarantee transparency, the process should be scraped. Nigeria admission process have been compromised by individual universities, JAMB, NUC, parents and applicants, and God will not leave some people unpunished whose actions or inaction contributed to the bastardization of the once transparent admission process
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Scrap JAMB,UTME, retain NECO

News that Nigerian government is planning to cancel two of its major examinations-Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination and the National Examination Council is welcoming on one hand and calls for caution on the other.

Welcoming, because if implemented, it will curb the excesses of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board which has held candidates seeking university education by the jugular for a long time.

For years, JAMB has been the only authorised body conducting examination into the nation’s universities and polytechnics.

Every year, at least 1.5million candidates patronise JAMB and of this figure, less than 250,000 eventually secure admission. Yet, each of the 1.5 million candidates pays an average of N5, 000 [about $34] to buy a form.

Aside this, candidates are expected to pay all kinds of sundry charges including buying scratch cards for checking their results and scratch cards for printing their admission letters.

Yet, the exam process was at a stage so compromised that universities lost confidence in it and pushed for a post UTME, a move which though JAMB vigorously rejected, went through all the same.

Of course, this is also at an extra cost to candidates who have to buy forms from the respective universities of their choice and still pay for the Post UTME exam. So you find candidates going through tortuous processes to secure admission to either a university or polytechnic.

These are some of the reasons why plans to cancel UTME and leave universities to select their candidates on their own is a welcome development. However, I have reservations about the fact that JAMB as a body would still be in charge of clearing candidates for universities.  That seems to me that JAMB will still be milking its candidates dry but through other means.

According to reports, under the new arrangement, authorities of all tertiary institutions will now be at liberty to conduct their entrance examinations as they have been doing for post-UTME. JAMB will however serve as a clearing house.  Though JAMB will no longer conduct examinations, it will still be setting the standard alongside the schools authorities.

JAMB will be a clearing house like Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) in UK. If somebody gains admission into three universities and hold down space, immediately such person picks his first choice, JAMB’s system will automatically free the remaining two slots for other applicants.

I think government should scrap JAMB outright and allow candidates to apply to the universities directly. A few things are likely to happen if this is done.

One, each university is likely to put in place a process that will ensure it attracts the best of brains since universities will be rated by the quality of their products. Two, the current multiple costs of securing university admission will be scrapped and third, the torture candidates are forced to endure in a bid to compete for a limited space in available institutions will be lessened.

As for NECO, I think scrapping the body is taking us back to the old system where the West African Examination Council was the sole exam body in the country.  It is a known fact that monopoly stifles competition. Rather than encourage monopoly, government should create a conducive environment for competitive examination bodies and allow students to make a choice. Government should think of making NECO work better than scrapping it.

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University autonomy versus JAMB control

Prof. Ruquayat Rufa'i - Minister of Education

What’s the point in conducting post Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination by universities all over Nigeria particularly private ones when candidates’ good performance in that exam does not really guarantee anything?  After all, what universities do with post UTME results is subject to the dictates of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board.

Why do universities make both parents and admission seekers go through unnecessary hardship when they know that JAMB has the final say on who is admitted to the university at the end of the day?

Parents and guardians of admission seekers spend extra money every year on air and road travels in their bid to take their children and wards to venues of their post UTME. Apart from the huge costs involved, some die in accidents.  Some parents and children were reportedly some of the victims of the last plane crash in the country.

This year again parents came from as far as Abuja to Lagos, Iwo and other parts of the country accompanying   their children who were writing their post UTME.

I can recall some of the reasons adduced for post UTME by universities a few years back. One of them is to ensure that universities admit quality students.  According to them, candidates offered admission by JAMB often ended up being below standard. The idea was to be able to sift candidates selected by JAMB to ensure they are up to standard,

While universities’ decision to sift their candidates might not be a bad idea, the universities were silent on what happens when they adjudge candidates to be good for admission and JAMB thinks otherwise. This has remained the crux of the matter.

As a mother whose daughter sought university admission this year, I had cause to take my child to different universities for her post-UTME.  At that time JAMB had not released its cut-off mark for university admission. The question parents kept on asking university authorities at the parents’ forums was what happened if their children did well in the university exams and failed to meet JAMB’s cut off mark. The universities had no answer.

It turned out that many candidates did well in the post UTME but scored below JAMB’s cut-off mark. For instance, Babcock University asked candidates whose names appeared on its admission list but failed to meet JAMB’s requirement not to bother paying the university’s acceptance fee.

If JAMB is still this relevant, why subject admission seekers to unnecessary stress?  Why does JAMB have to wait for weeks before releasing its cut-off marks?  If JAMB could release UTME results within one week of writing the exam, why should it wait for another six weeks before declaring its cut-off marks? Why allow parents to spend thousands of Naira to obtain admission forms to private universities or pay for different post-UTMEs, wasting money on needless trips before releasing the cut-off marks?

Though I don’t really subscribe to fixing a cut-off for admission, fixing 180 for university admission would have been okay by me if there are no question marks on either the integrity of JAMB as an exam body or on UTME as a whole.  There were reports of cheatings and other forms of exam malpractices in this exam which unfortunately cannot just be swept aside.

Whether JAMB likes it or not, the ministry of education would still have to work something out to resolve the issue of admission into Nigeria’s universities. With public universities over-stretched and multitudes of admission seekers out there, government needs to take a more pragmatic measure to solve the gigantic problem in the education sector.  Every year over one million people seek admission to higher institutions in Nigeria. The figure keeps increasing every year. But the entire system could only absorb 500,000 according to the minister of education, Prof. Ruqayyat Rufai.  A country in a situation like this needs to work on maximising its capacity to absorb as many students as possible.

But that is not happening now.  The situation now is that some universities, especially private universities, have spaces that are yet to be filled.   There are candidates that meet such universities’ admission criteria, but universities’ hands are tied by government regulation.

Let’s face it, while public universities usually have more than enough candidates to admit, thus always exceeding their carrying capacity, private universities will continue to have spaces because it costs money to study there.  Tuition in private universities range from N650, 000 to N2m per session depending on the course of study.  A large number of Nigerians cannot afford this.

Instead of piling up the list of admission seekers every year, I think government should allow those that can afford private university education and who are qualified by these universities’ standard to proceed to the university.  This will not only decongest the list of admission seekers, it will also reduce   capital flight.

There was a report that Nigerians spend N160bn annually in two Ghanaian universities.  Ironically, Ghana and other  countries admit the same candidates that are rejected in Nigeria because of unnecessary government regulations.  Universities in other parts of the world won’t need JAMB’s permission to admit candidates.  Instead of allowing parents to keep on taking their money out of the country to receive sometimes half-baked education, government could review its law.

Right now, some parents are in agony. For some of them, their children scored between 170 and 179. They have the money to pay in private universities and would have loved their children to remain in Nigeria for at least their first degree programmes, but they are being denied of that chance. This shouldn’t be.

After all, the autonomy of Nigerian universities   is claimed to be backed by law. If that is the case, institutions should be able to establish their own programmes of study recruit their own students and have some levels of control.   True autonomy connotes organisations having the freedom or freewill to set their own rules and regulations without interference and control from outside especially from government.

Agreed universities   must operate under the law of the land because autonomy doesn’t just give the right to do anything at any point in time, universities should still have the freedom to set and maintain their own academic standards just like the foreign universities do.

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Strike: ASUU Hails Legislators For Intervention, Looks Forward To Positive Outcome

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), on Wednesday hailed the Senate Committee on Education for its role in trying to resolve the face-off between the union and the Federal Government.

 

The National President of the union, Dr Nasir Fagge, made the commendation in a telephone interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), in Lagos.

ASUU had on July 1, embarked on an indefinite strike over the non-implementation of some issues contained in an agreement it entered into with the Federal government in 2009.

One week into the strike, the Minister of Education, Prof. Ruqqayatu Rufai, appealed to the striking lecturers to reconsider their stand and go back to work, pending the resolution of issues involved.

The Senate Committee on Education also called ASUU for a meeting on Tuesday, towards a resolution of the issues--but it could not hold.

Fagge told NAN:``I sincerely want to appreciate the efforts of the National Assembly in its role at ensuring that it gets the executive arm of government to do what it is supposed to do on this issue.

Our meeting with the Senate Committee on Education that was slated for Tuesday July 9, could not hold because of some pressing issues that needed urgent attention.

The meeting has now been moved to Monday, July 15, when we are expected to deliberate on several issues that are related to the general development of the sector’’.

Fagge said he looked forward to the meeting with the legislators and hoped it would help in resolving the issues which led to the strike.

I am confident that the National Assembly will seize this opportunity in prevailing on the executive to do what they are supposed to do so.

``I hope that at the end of the deliberation, we would have cause to be happy and get ourselves back to work.

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House Of Reps Probe JAMB Over N21.3bn UTME Fees

The House of Representatives has ordered a probe into the financial status of the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) with regards to its revenue remittances to government coffers.

The House at its plenary yesterday said the body had, over the last three years, generated over N21 billion from sale of forms to candidates seeking admission into the nation’s tertiary institutions with no commensurate remittances, but still got appropriation of over N6 billion from the national budget within the same period.

In its resolution on a motion moved on the matter by Ibrahim Ebbo, the House mandated its joint committee on Education and Finance to investigate the revenue generation and remittances of the Board, and report back its findings within two weeks.

According to Ebbo, in 2011, 1,493,604 candidates bought forms and sat for the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) organized by the Board at the cost of N4, 600 per candidate, translating to a total of N6,870,400 while it got an appropriation of N2,021,235,070 in the national budget the same year.

Similarly, 1.5 million candidates sat for the UTME in 2012, amounting to N6.9 million generated through sale of forms, and 1,644,110 sat in 2013 and N7,562,906,000 generated through sale of forms while the Board got N2,370,273,304 and N2,377,397,191 for the two years respectively.

The lawmaker said the investigation was necessary to ascertain whether JAMB was actually remitting the right sum to the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federation as stipulated by law.

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