| Post JAMB Tests PLC |
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| Written by Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Tuesday, 07 August 2007 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Post-JAMB PLC By Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye I
am very sad that I have been forced by some very horrifying reports
coming out of our various university campuses to seriously regret my
earlier support for post-JAMB tests. I am highly disappointed that
post-JAMB tests now present Nigeria with the worst and crudest forms of
the very evils they were set up to combat, and have, indeed, deepened
the despair of a horribly disappointed nation. Long
before the universities were given approval to subject “successful
candidates” in the University Matriculation Examinations (UME) to
further tests, prepared and organized by them, I had been forced by the
unspeakable waywardness and vulgar bazaar reportedly flourishing at the
Joint Admissions and Matriculations Board (JAMB) to call for the
outright scraping of that body. At that time, the story was everywhere
that all any candidate needed to be awarded very high scores in the UME
was to carry a ‘Ghana-must-go’ bag to JAMB offices. And
the next minute, the student would be announcing to his less-privileged
colleagues how his parents’ wealth had secured him an admission he
never earned. In fact, the racket was so pervasive that even typists at
the JAMB offices were believed to have come into stupendous wealth by
just agreeing to alter some scores in favour of their clients. Also,
JAMB always appeared overwhelmed and terribly worn-out each time it
was organizing the examinations. Despite the huge sums of money
flowing into its coffers from sales of forms, it never stopped singing
about insufficient invigilators and inadequate security. But when
widespread malpractices expectedly flourished as a result of its
apparent lack of adequate preparation, it would adopt a lazy man’s
approach, by cancelling the entire results of some selected centres
which it, probably, instinctively, adjudged guilty of malpractices, not
bothering a hoot that innocent students who may have worked hard for
the examination and had resisted the temptation to cheat could be in
those centres. That
was the depressing story of JAMB, and so, when it sought to safeguard
its relevance by resisting the attempts by the universities to
re-examine the candidates that had “passed” its UME, JAMB got very
little sympathy from well-meaning Nigerians who were already dismayed
by what looked like its determination to devalue university education
in Nigeria. By the unwholesome practice that was flourishing, JAMB
was, no doubt, frustrating honest, intelligent and hardworking students
out of university education and filling their places with those who had
no business being there. In such a “cash and carry” arrangement, the
poor man’s child had no place. It was that bad. In
fact, after hearing from my friends who taught at the universities the
difficulties they encountered with students whose deep pockets had
purchased them very high scores from JAMB, how many of them could not
cope with even very fundamental courses which should ordinarily be easy
meat for any fresh O’level graduate, I thought that JAMB had outlived
its usefulness. And since it also appeared irredeemable, I felt it
should go. Universities can then organize their own entrance
examinations and admit candidates they had by themselves examined and
adjudged qualified, as is the practice in most countries of the world. But
the situation with the post-JAMB tests in the Universities is today
proving to be far worse than the clearly hideous racket that flourished
in JAMB in those dark days, which made most of us to eagerly support
what we thought then was a wholesome arrangement by the universities,
the major stakeholders, to sanitize the admission process and restore
credibility to it. In
fact, one is now forced to even wonder whether it was concern for
academic standards that propelled their move at that time or a
desperation to have a “piece of the action” which JAMB appeared to be
enjoying alone in a matter the universities thought they should also
have a stake. What I hear now is that, in several universities, if not
all, no matter what you write at the post-JAMB tests, unless you pay
huge sums of money, there would be no admission for you. At
a particular university, I was informed that people pay as much as
three hundred thousand naira (N300, 000) to secure admission in some
departments and a little less to be admitted to read some other
courses! I am carrying out extensive investigation, and would soon have
with me inconvertible evidence of where and how these monies are
demanded and paid. A parent I talked with recently lamented terribly
when he related his experience. These monies, I am told, are not even
demanded at hidden corners. It is now a clear case of open, transparent
and official bribery and corruption. The universities have far exceeded
what JAMB had done, or could have done. It is possible that in addition
to the money they are paying, the young tender females among the
candidates may be compelled to submit themselves to the teachers and
admission or faculty officials in whose hands the power to give them
addition rests. Well,
all I can say now, before I return to this topic, is that, President
Umar Musa Yar’Adua’s Education Minister, Mr. Nwachukwu, must commence
his assignment with a serious fight against this unhealthy practice
with all the might and resources at his disposal. In fact, a major
chunk of whatever efforts that would be deployed to reclaim our
universities from decay should be directed to combat this malaise with
every resoluteness and dedication, or else, in the next few years, we
would have no semblance of universities in the land, as they would have
all become merely Certificate Trading Centres. Let
no one think that the so-called private universities are better, and
provide a reassuring alternative? Indeed, some of the people parading
themselves as “Senior Lecturers” at those universities may not even
qualify as Research Assistants in some of our public universities, even
with their present dismal state. In fact, I am aware that many of the
lecturers at the private universities were people who had failed at
interviews for employment at some state-owned universities. Recently, I
was told of one “professor” in a high-flying private university who is
also the dean of a faculty there. But this fellow left one public
university some years ago because he lacked what it took to attain such
a position. I know that politics and nepotism comes to play in this
sometimes, but this case was clear, as a former student of the fellow
assured me. In fact, the only thing that makes some of the private
universities appear more distinguished than the state ones may just be
the high fees they charge. I
wonder what the position of the National Universities Commission (NUC)
is on this post-JAMB racket? Why is the NUC behaving as if it is yet to
become aware of the flourishing lucrative racket? Are there angles to
this sleaze we are yet to know about, but which the NUC would help us
understand? This
is very serious, because, despite this sad, disappointment arising from
the attempt by the Universities to organize these qualifying
examinations, JAMB, which is still struggling under the crushing weight
of its enormous credibility burden, cannot still be trusted reassume
its former status as the sole examining body. It
then means that the universities must be helped to save themselves from
themselves before they destroy themselves by themselves. And I hope it
is clear that it would not only be parents and students that would lose
out if that happens. Since
the universities have proved themselves incapable of handling something
as simple as qualifying examinations, it should then be clear to us
that the decay is more deep than we had imagined
Tuesday, August 7, 2007
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Posted by Robot| 07.08.2007 09:45