ERC to JAMB: You are ill-prepared for 2017 UTME

The Education Rights Campaign (ERC) has carpeted the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) for what it termed ill-preparation for the 2017 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).

This was contained in a press statement signed by the National Coordinator of the organisation, Comrade Hassan Taiwo Soweto, accusing JAMB of subjecting applicants to “unwarranted hardship.”

It noted that accounts of degree of hardship experienced by applicants and their parents are always in the news, ranging from congested registration centres to highhandedness of security operatives.

The statement averred that there is an indication that the 2017 UTME could be the worst examinations ever orgainsed in the history of the board.

“The JAMB officialdom has tried to justify this unnecessary hardship as an inevitable consequence of the innovations and reforms it has had to introduce to make the admission process more resistant to manipulation and cheating, the assertion we completely fault.

“As we have argued severally, so long as shortage of admission spaces continue to exist, the admission process will remain brutally competitive and as such continue to succumb to malpractice, manipulation and racketeering. Therefore unless government addresses the problem of shortage of admission spaces by improving funding to the education sector and ensuring that these funds are judiciously used to expand facilities in the existing tertiary institutions while establishing more, no effort to curb examination malpractice and racketeering will succeed.

“As all can see, despite JAMB’s efforts over the years and that of others to address the problem of examination malpractice and admission racketeering, these challenges continue to rise astronomically.

“Even with the introduction of Post-UTME, admission manipulation and racketeering has not abated. The reason for this is not farfetched. It is simply because JAMB’s and government’s aspirations to rid the admission process of malpractice is anchored on entirely false assumptions and perspectives.

“Government and JAMB erroneously believe that examination malpractice is a crime that can be curbed through the development of tighter controls and monitoring as well as deployment of technology to strengthen the integrity of the examination process.

“This was the reason why the examination body launched the Computer Based Test few years ago. But instead of the CBT reducing examination malpractice, it has been riddled with all kinds of complaints. Especially in the prevailing condition of inadequate computer illiteracy and little or no infrastructure to support it, the CBT has only succeeded in putting the examination process in further chaos.

“The underpinning reason for the endemic nature of examination malpractices and admission racketeering remains the inadequate admission spaces in the public universities, polytechnics and colleges of education and the rabid competition this has created in the hearts and minds of admission seekers and parents. Only improved funding and expansion of the carrying capacity of existing tertiary institutions as well as a plan to establish more can begin to eliminate the conditions and motivations for examination malpractice and admission racketeering.

“The worsening crisis of admission in the country, as it has been reiterated by the ERC many times is a product of poor funding and neglect of Nigeria’s public education system. A paltry spending of 8-10% of the nation’s budget is earmarked for primary, secondary and tertiary institutions in the country.

“This means, among other things, that existing institutions cannot be expanded to meet up with growing rate of admission seekers. It is quite unfortunate that a country like Nigeria with its worrisome record of “out of school” children operate budgetary policies that discourage mass literacy. The recent reports of looted revenues have shown for all to see that Nigeria has the economic stamina to implement UNESCO recommendation of 26% budgetary allocation to education on yearly basis.

“We are therefore certain that commitment of significant revenues to developing public education would ameliorate glut of admission seekers as currently experienced. The Education Rights Campaign (ERC) put the blame for 2017 UTME registration crisis at the door step of the Buhari-led government, and call on education workers’ unions, parents and civil society groups to renew the struggle for improved funding of the education sector and democratic control and management of schools,” the statement reads.