The Federal Ministry of Education has clarified its position on the scrapping of the Post-Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination, UTME.
A statement issued and signed by Ben Goong, the Deputy Director of Press and Public Relations in the ministry, quoted the Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu, as saying that the ban was with immediate effect and directed all higher institutions to comply with the directive.
The statement said: “The ban is with immediate effect, and under no circumstance should any institution violate the directive.
“The responsibility for admission into public tertiary institutions lies solely with the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) and under no circumstance whatsoever, should anybody or institution take over that responsibility by proxy.
“For the avoidance of doubt, any educational institution after secondary education is regarded as a tertiary institution.
“Therefore, all tertiary institutions, Polytechnics, Colleges of Education, Universities or by whatever name it is called after secondary education, must be subjected to admission through the JAMB.”
The statement said at the end of probationary admission by JAMB, the candidates could be screened for final admission, stating that any institution with a shortfall in admission could revert to JAMB for supplementary admission.
According to the statement, screening in this case entails only the verification of certificates of the candidates, JAMB scores and any other physical examination to ensure that such candidates are not cultists.
“After this, the candidates are qualified for matriculation. Such screening should be at no cost to the parents or students and should be done upon resumption, in order to avoid unnecessary travels in search of admission.”
It said the clarification had become necessary in order to clear the doubt in some quarters regarding the real stance of the minister.
Adamu recently raised concern over the post-UTME test being conducted by various universities.
“As far as I am concerned, if the nation has confidence in what JAMB is doing, the universities should not be holding another examinations.
“If the universities have any complain against JAMB, let them bring it and then we address it.
“But if JAMB is qualified enough to conduct tests and they have conducted test, then there will be no need to conduct another test for students to gain admission.”
The statement further quoted the minister as saying that there had been no empirical evidence to show that since the inception of post-UTME, universities had been having better quality students.
It said students were still being expelled on a yearly basis for low performance even as they gained admission through post-UTME.
According to the statement, Adamu is concerned about the plight of parents who spend fortunes on transportation and sundry costs just for their wards to gain admission into universities.
It further said that the minister was mindful of reported cases where some staff of tertiary institutions took advantage of the girl-child in her quest to gain admission into the system.
The statement said the minister had directed the National Universities Commission and appropriate departments in the ministry to communicate the directive to relevant agencies and institutions, to ensure strict compliance.
Adamu was quoted as having said: “Those who have already advertised for the conduct of the Post-UTME under any guise should stop the exercise immediately as any university caught conducting Post-UTMNE will face appropriate sanctions.
“If any tertiary Institution has already conducted Post-UTME, such an exercise stands annulled and money taken from such candidates must be refunded immediately.”
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