It was on the 2nd of June, 2016 when the Minister of education, Malam Adamu Adamu scrapped the Post-utme method of admission into tertiary institutions in Nigeria which was introduced in 2005 by the then Minister of education, Mrs. Chinwe Obaji. To some, the scrapping was long overdue but to some, they feel Nigeria wasn’t ready just yet.

A long story short, in this article, I’ll be stating three reasons why Nigeria wasn’t ready yet and what should have been done instead.





1. Conduct of the examinations.

Almost all of the candidates who wrote the UTME exam can testify to the irregularities featured in the exam. Starting from technical problems like the system being suddenly logged out or switching itself off, which are pardonable since noone’s perfect, to being marked wrongly despite how simple the exam was (all questions were past questions). Some were even given 40 marks after releasing their initial marks, an evidence to how imperfect the exam was. Why then should the future of over a million candidates be determined by this same exam? They should have made their exam hitch-free before taking such a huge step as to scrap the post-utme!

Come to think of it, why should an exam be used twice to screen a candidate? The UTME exam was used to determine the minimum cutoff marks a candidate should have before being eligible to apply for screening in tertiary institutions which was 180. It was then also used in addition to the O’level results to determine a candidate’s screening score and cutoff marks in each tertiary institution. Should that be so? Whatever method of screening is used, if I had 170 in the UTME with my 5/8 As, then I’m good to go. Why then should I not be allowed to partake in the screening process?

We also know clearly without anyone saying it that not all O’level results are worthy of the owners. If we all want to be truthful, we will agree to malpractices being rampant in those exams, be it NECO or WAEC.

All these should have been considered before scrapping post-utme.





2. Regulating the price

In one of the reasons stated for scrapping post-utme, the high price charged by tertiary institutions for conducting another needless exam was a key reason. Though they got it right there but what was done afterwards was worse.

All tertiary institutions charged candidates who were to register for the new screening method an amount of money. I saw a university charge up to ₦6000. Then why scrap post-utme in the first place if you won’t see to the key reason why you scrapped it? Does that even make sense at all?

They were supposed to see to it that no price was charged or if at all, a small amount which should be known to all was charged. Any tertiary institution that doesn’t comply should be sanctioned according to laid down rules. That should be the right thing to do.

They have that much power, don’t they?


NOTE: I am not saying that the new method isn’t good, what I’m saying is that we were not ready for it yet. As voting is to be done before announcing the winner, some things are to be done before scrapping post-utme.

Lastly, I can authoritatively say it that most of the candidates who didn’t meet the cutoff marks of their respective tertiary institutions due to their O’level result now know what to do. They all are planning to resit the O’level exams. And not just at any centre but at ‘special centres’.

Using this new method of screening is like voting Trump to be president of the USA, you don’t know what will happen in the years to come.


Read fully at [url]uivents.[/url]. Visit the blog for equally great articles. Thanks for reading this.

Source: [url]uivents./2016/11/10/before-scrapping-post-utme-these-should-have-been-done/[/url]

Thank you for this great piece

seunlayi:
Thank you for this great piece

I'm glad you like it. Thanks for reading through. Don't forget to check the full article on the blog.

Lalasticlala, Fynestboi, Richeiz, Olawalebabs. Do the needful.

UIvents:
Lalasticlala, Fynestboi, Richeiz, Olawalebabs. Do the needful.

Nice piece, bro.

UIvents:


I'm glad you like it. Thanks for reading through. Don't forget to check the full article on the blog.

OK

Shabib:

Nice piece, bro.

thanks friend.

UIvents:

thanks friend.

You're welcome