By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Educationists and parents have asked the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) to re-mark or cancel the result of this year’s Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) and conduct a fresh one.
They also want a total overhaul of JAMB to conform with global examination practices.
This year’s UTME should not have taken place considering the backlog of those who already qualified for the little space in universities, argues Orji Kanu, Association of Formidable Educational Development (AFED) National President.
He told The Guardian (Nigeria) that the mass failure of candidates this year may be a ploy by JAMB to give room for only a few to join those on queue from last year’s UTME.
He said “the University of Ibadan (UI) for instance, announced that its 100 level students are still at the orientation stage, which means no space for new students.
“We are aware that COVID-19 pandemic disrupted global academic calendar and Nigeria does not operate in a separate space.
“One may be forced to believe that JAMB is more focused on revenue drive rather than its primary responsibility of selecting qualified candidates who can fill few spaces available in our institutions.”
JAMB too focused on revenue
Kanu insisted that if JAMB thinks otherwise, regardless of all the agitations, it should explain why parents should continue to trust it as not focusing on revenue generation.
He said there is an urgent need for Nigeria to replan its educational policies and programmes to address the deficit in human capital.
In his view, considering the stress students and parents go through to participate in UTME, results should be valid for at least two years, to enable those who performed well but could not secure admission due to the low capacity of institutions, to use the same result the following year.
An educationist, Sammy Ndubuisi, called on JAMB to review the 2021 UTME to unravel the causes of failure, whether human, programming or other scientific error.
Ndubuisi argued that if those affected are in the overwhelming majority, drastic measures have to be taken, including re-marking or re-running the tests, at no cost to candidates.
Equity must be ensured in favour of the candidates, who should not suffer any disability or enjoy undue advantage from the exercise, he stressed.
But on the validity of JAMB results for more than a year, Ndubuisi countered that entrance examination and admission take place yearly, so UTME result should be fresh and not warehoused like factory products.
According to him, each examination tests the current ability of a candidate who is fairly judged against other candidates in the same cycle of examinations.
“This cohorting is how to get the best candidates into our tertiary institutions. It happened before JAMB and should remain so. I agree that, once admitted and matriculated, a student’s admission could be deferred for a good reason,” he added.
He stressed that JAMB is still relevant but sought its decentralisation for greater efficiency.
“Centralisation has never been effective for any length of time in Nigeria. Perhaps, the body could be decentralised or its examinations run in batches.
“It will take a rigorous and sincere internal audit of its operations and the input of end-users (tertiary institutions, education stakeholders and prospective candidates) to make JAMB more efficient and responsive to emerging situations.”
Examination marred by irregularities
Association of Tutorial School Operators (ATSO) reiterated that this year’s UTME is the worst in recent years, marred by irregularities, including frustration of candidates, extortion, computer malfunction, multiple results, and subjecting candidates to danger.
ATSO President Dotun Sodunke said at the annual review of public examinations that considering the plethora of errors in the initial results and subsequent mass failure it was likely the software used in marking malfunctioned.
He recalled that a similar situation played out in 2013/2014 during the tenure of Dibu Ojerinde when JAMB had to add 40 marks to the score of some science candidates after results had been released.
“The advent of JAMB’s misadventure in this year’s UTME is the mandatory use of National Identification Number (NIN) for registration,” Sodunke told The Guardian.
“We knew it was a recipe for disaster when over 1.5 million teenagers were being forced to get NIN within one month in a country where the technology, infrastructure, centres and personnel to get them registered were almost non-existent.
“What is the fate of those students that were caught up in the computer glitches and logged out of the system while writing the exam? JAMB’s policy summersault in literature in English syllabus is another sore point in the examination.
“Candidates had prepared adequately with the new syllabus released by JAMB but they found out too late that the examination body had resorted to setting questions from the old syllabus that was supposed to lapse by 2020.
“ATSO hereby joins other critical stakeholders in rejecting the UTME results. We hereby call for the remark of the examination or outright cancellation to pave the way for a fresh and less controversial exercise.
“JAMB is the only examination body in the modern world that will charge candidates for printing results of exams paid for, charge as high as N2,500 for each error a candidate wishes to correct on its portal and same for change of course or institution.”
ATSO urged JAMB to give enough time for registration.
“What is the essence of a one-month registration window that would always bring untold hardship? At least a four-month registration window should be considered.
“Registration can start in November and close by April. All impediments to successful registration would be cleared within this period, paving the way for a successful examination while candidates will have enough time to prepare for the exam.”
Some parents blamed the mass failure on insecurity and poverty, saying many families cannot feed well, hence students find it difficult to concentrate on studies.
“It’s like JAMB just wanted to extort money from parents. Do universities have the capacity to carry candidates that wrote last year and this year? JAMB should not have conducted exam this year, it sold forms just to collect money,” one parent said.
JAMB blames the pandemic and insecurity
JAMB confirmed that the performance of candidates in the 2021 UTME is poorer than in the past three years.
JAMB Registrar Ishaq Oloyede, a professor, blamed it on coronavirus which disrupted academic activities as well as insecurity and kidnapping of school children.
Oloyede said when the data of candidates who scored 120 marks and above out of the possible 400 in 2021 is compared to the result in 2020, there is a difference of 0.25 per cent but worse when compared to 2018 and 2019.
His words: “In 2018, it was 99.99 per cent but in 2019 it dropped to 99.92. Also, in 2020, 69.82 per cent of the total candidates who sat the UTME scored 160 and above but in 2021, it reduced to 65.62 per cent.
“In 2019, the percentage of those who scored more than 300 out of the possible 400 marks was 0.16 per cent while it was 0.26 per cent in 2020. But in 2021, the figure fell steeply to 0.06 per cent.”
Oloyede said a total 1,415,501 candidates registered for both UTME and Direct Entry, out of which 1,340,003 registered for UTME and 75, 498 for DE.
A total 1,300,722 wrote the examination with 78, 389 candidates absent, he confirmed.
“Last year, when they took the examination, candidates had gone far in their syllabus. But this year, they suffered incomplete academic session, they had to cope with emergency online lessons and even many other disturbances like insecurity.”