The Aftermath Of Scraping Post Utme Exam

Institutions abide by the FG's "No Post UTME" rule but made
admissions worse. Aspirants were still made to pay for
screenings not conducted, some were asked to travel long
distances, risking their lives at extra expenses, only for
submission of documents, making the reasons for the
abolishment of Post Utme exams to be utterly defeated in
the first place.
As if those are not enough, institutions came up with
disheartening admission modalities. Some just released
admission lists after collecting aspirants money in the name
of admission screening registration. Their criteria for
admissions remained puzzles to many. Some even released
results with no clear information on how the results were
arrived at. Some publicized their scoring systems combining
Olevel grades and UTME results of varying proportions.
Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife used 70/30 UTME/Olevel
with two subjects' grades in addition to the five relevant
subjects to the chosen courses of study. University of Lagos
and University of Ibadan used 50/50 UTME/Olevel with
different styles. All these grading systems are contrary to the
admission guidelines obtainable atwww.jamb.gov.ng.
The 50/50 scoring system looks just and fair but it's not. Let's
examine University of Ibadan system (obtainable from
www.ui.edu.ng). A1-6, B2-5, B3-4, C4-3, C5-2 and C6-1. Five
relevant Olevel subjects are graded and the total divided by
30, then multiplied by 50 give X. UTME score divided by 400,
multiplied by 50 gives Y. X+Y gives the aggregate which must
not be less than 50 for a candidate to be qualified for
admission consideration. Is this actually 50/50?
200 UTME score was advertised as the minimum score to be
eligible and at least 5 credit passes in either one or two
sittings depending on course of study. A candidate with 200
in UTME already has 25/50 in UTME but a candidate with C6
in all his five required subjects has just 8.3/50 in Olevel.
50/50 indeed! A candidate with C5 in his five relevant
subjects and 250 UTME scores has 47.9 as aggregate which
mean he can't be admitted whereas another candidate with
B3 in his five relevant subjects and 200 UTME has 58.3 as
aggregate and can be admitted. Aspirants with below credit
in each of five Olevel subjects have 0/50 in Olevel while
aspirants with UTME scores below 200 can score as high as
24.875 on this scoring system. Candidates with two Olevel
sittings, even though advertised as allowed, will have the
points scored from the second result halved before it can be
added. Is this justice coming from the Senate of an ivory
tower?
The above is just one of the various awkward admission
modalities employed by our tertiary institutions for this
year's admission and yet the Federal Government, civil
organizations, National Assembly and the Media had been
silent on this issue affecting about a million of this country's
"future leaders". I call on President Muhammadu Buhari's
lead administration to see to this as this is the first
admission that will be fully conducted under the watch of his
government. Is this the change we deserve in the nation's
admission process?
Kindly let something be done in earnest to prevent these
injustices and impunity. In preparation for next admission,
there should be a stakeholder's meeting on admission
process, duly publicized and let each institution publish her
peculiar admission guidelines to enable students make the
best choices. Not changing the rules when the game is on.
God bless Nigeria.