The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) on Monday lambasted the Federal Government for scrapping the Post-Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination.
National President of ASUU, Prof. Biodun Ogunyemi, told newsmen in Abuja, that the cancellation “portends serious danger for the quality of education in this country”.
“The argument of federal government on the policy is unacceptable and potentially harmful to the future of Nigerian’s education system. We call on government to rescind its decision and convene a genuine stakeholders’ meeting on the issue before making any policy statement”, he added.
Ogunyemi insisted that the Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu, did not enjoy the sole prerogative to endorse the examination conducted by the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board.
He said, “Such statement coming from the Minister was unfortunate because JAMB should not be saddled with the responsibility of solely conducting entrance examinations into the nation’s tertiary institutions.
“We call the attention of the Honourable Minister of Education to the fact that Post-UTME is a child of necessity and rationality and a decision that Nigerian Universities had to take when the credibility and integrity of JAMB examinations and results became questionable.
“When universities were admitting solely on the basis of JAMB scores, unimaginable discrepancies were observed in the JAMB scores of candidates and their performance in the first year in the University.
“Consider a candidate who got a JAMB score of 290 out of a maximum of 400, yet had to withdraw from the University at the end of the first year on account of very poor performance. It is important to note that this happened not in isolated cases. Virtually all universities reported such cases.
“The University of Ibadan conducted a study on the correlation between JAMB scores and performance at the University, and reported a negative correlation between the two. The results were published in the Ibadan Journal of the Social Sciences. The introduction of Post -UTME was based on sound empirical evidence.”
ASUU said there had been considerable improvement in the quality of students admitted into the universities since the introduction of Post -UTME.
The ASUU leader added that: “The Post-UTME has its problems which we believe can be addressed. To curtail exploitation of parents and candidates, government can improve funding to universities and other tertiary institutions”.
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