Over 1 million candidates that sat for the University Tertiary Matriculation Examinations,UTME, on Saturday, may not gain admission into the nation’s higher institutions due to lack of space, the federal government has stated, DailyPost has gathered.
The Minister of Education, Professor Ruqayyatu Rufai, disclosed this at a news conference in Abuja on Saturday after having monitored the conduct of the UTME in Abuja and Suleja, Niger State, alongside the Registrar and Chief Executive of the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board,JAMB, Prof. Dibu Ojerinde.
Rufai said that the current capacity of tertiary institutions across the country was only about 500,000.
This, she noted cannot cater for the 1.7million candidates sitting for the UTME.
Professor Rufai who bemoaned the gross inadequate number of universities in the country appealed for more public private partnerships for the establishment of more institutions to increase access to university education in Nigeria.
She made the plea, noting that the growing number of students who enrol for admission into tertiary institutions annually is alarming as revealed by the number of students siting for this year’s UTME.
The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board,JAMB, announced that over 1.7million candidates registered for the UTME, an increase of 13.35 percent compared to last year’s.
According to the Minister, there is space for only one-third of these applicants and the remaining candidates, who may even pass the admission cut-off mark, may never get admitted.
She further lamented that this vicious cycle is bound to continue if the appeals of the federal government goes unheeded.
The Federal Executive Council,FEC, recently approved provisional licenses for the establishment of five new private universities in Nigeria.
This brings the total number of government owned and private universities in the country to 122. With over a hundred universities, the federal government claims, the institutions are not enough to address the challenges currently facing the nation’s tertiary education.
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