*** This piece is actually a follow up to an earlier article on the subject. It is a bit of a long read but it is worth it in the end. We have to do something about education in Nigeria. ***

I am saddened by the fact that the Nigerian government, after so many years, has still not been able to get its tertiary education policy right. Successive governments have only engaged in what can be likened to 'trial and error'. The recent directive by the Minister of Education that universities should conduct Post-UTME screenings (Post -UTME) lends credence to the view above.

Without a doubt, these haphazard measures and policy somersaults will not help the educational sector of the county. I am of the firm view that Post-UTME has no real benefit whatsoever! In fact, it has quite the opposite effect. A few points will clarify this position.

1. Post-UTME does not correct in any way the lapses identified in the UTME organised by JAMB. This is for the simple reason that the system that made it impossible for the UTME to be 'perfect' will also make it impossible for the Post-UTME to be plague free. To that end, we are only putting our young people and families through unnecessary stress when we insist on Post-UTME. As I see it, it is just about the money these institutions can make and which they often don't account for.

2. Post-UTME does not improve the quality of instruction in the universities. It also does not improve the quality of graduates that are churn out of our universities every year. For instance, in the last twelve years, have our graduates been better than those before them? Well, more persons will be inclined to argue that the reverse is actually the case. It is contended that quality investment in education with particular emphasis on imaginative thinking is what does the trick! Since that is absent, for as long as we can remember, tertiary education in Nigeria has been on a downward trend. So, why the deceit with the suggestion that Post-UTME will help to check the quality of students being admitted and help to improve the system down the line?

Poignantly, the majority of universities in Europe and North America do not set examinations before they admit students. Instructively, representatives from these universities come to Nigeria and they offer on the spot admission to Nigerians by just sighting their ordinary level results. And yet, it is very easy to argue that our best universities cannot compete with those universities under any guise!

3. To be fair, Post-UTME might have been conceived with the best of intentions. However, as it has been made to operate, it is a tool handed to the university authorities with which to patronise themselves and also perpetrate mind numbing graft! Before 2005 when the devilish system was introduced by the then Minister of Education under the Obasanjo Administration, a prospective student gained admission directly into a university by simply writing what was then known as UME and passing the examination with the right score or buying a supplementary form where the score was not up to the stipulated cutoff mark. They didn't have to know anyone who would influence their admission - in theory, at least.

The current system, however, is the stark opposite. It puts the admission process in the hands of the university administrators instead of JAMB. This means that in the vast majority of cases, for a student to be admitted to a programme in a Nigerian university the student must know some officer in the university or be prepared to part with a huge sum of money. This reminds me of an experience I had sometime in 2007 in one of the universities in Port Harcourt. I was in one of the offices in this university when a young man stepped in and introduced himself. The young man who had just written that year's UME and Post-UME (it used to be UME before JAMB christened it UTME, recently) in that university informed the officer that he was sent by his father who had earlier discussed with the officer. Right in my presence, the young man was told that if he wants his first choice course (law) he should be prepared to pay N100,000 and for his second choice course (mass communication) he should set aside N60,000. Such is the modus operandi in nearly all the universities.

In the final analysis, based on the present arrangement, we don't seem to be concerned about the future of tertiary education in Nigeria. It would have been easy to overlook if not that it is really a tragedy. This is especially as tertiary education holds the key to the long sought after transformation of our largely crude society. Even if we cannot convoke a conference to articulate the way forward for (tertiary) education in Nigeria, we can at least copy from societies with workable systems! This is why I propose that Post-UTME should be scrapped forthwith. I also propose that JAMB's UTME should be done away with. The alternative is contained in an earlier article on the subject.

By: Listic1

***Reference to university in this piece is primarily a reference to a public university. However, most of the assertions hold true for universities that are privately owned.***