During the recently held combined policy meetings on admissions into degree, NCE and national diploma awarding institutions hosted by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) in Abuja, far reaching decisions including the pegging of the cut off points, the issue of universities’ carrying capacity, and the transition of the mode of UTME examination from PPT to CBT were considered. AUGUSTINE OKEZIE takes a look at some of these decisions
One of the major decisions arrived at the joint policy meetings on admissions into universities and other tertiary institutions, is the pegging of the cut-off marks for 2014 admissions into Universities at 180, while those for Polytechnics and Colleges of Education (COE) were 150 respectively.
The cut off points were arrived at yesterday on, after the 5th Combined Policy meeting on admissions to tertiary institutions held at the premises of the National Universities Commission.
Minister of state for Education, Nyesom Wike who declared the meeting open frowned at the inability of most tertiary institutions to fully utilize their admission carrying capacities, a situation he noted grossly undermined government drive to create enhanced access to tertiary education in the country.
Wike further warned that institutions which failed to utilize their admission quotas for 2014 will be heavily sanctioned.
He reiterated government’s commitment to the development of ICT training, which he said has already been inculcated as part of the standard curriculum at the secondary school level.
“I have been brief that despite the rising demand for higher education vis-a-vis the availability of a large number of qualified candidates, some institutions did not fully utilize the admissions quota approved for them by relevant regulatory agencies in 2013.
“This disservice to the Nigeria child is totally unacceptable, in line with efforts of the federal government to improve access, let me urge you all to with effect from today, work assiduously to ensure that all admission spaces in your institutions for the current year are fully utilized within the approved time frame,” he stated.
Registrar and Chief Executive of JAMB, Dibu Ojerinde provided a breakdown of candidates who applied for the various programmes in the institutions as follows: 97.070 for university degrees, COE applicants were 1579, Polytechnics 22,072 representing 1.349 while NID had just 46 representing 0.003, bringing the grand total to 1,584,348
On Full implementation of the CBT come 2015
Another decision that was finally sealed at the policy meeting is the full implementation of the computer based test (CBT) mode in the UTME examination come 2015 and the final phasing out of the paper based test.
Emphasising some of the inherent advantages in the CBT mode ,an elated Ojerinde said ‘’There is no gain saying the fact that this new wave (Computer Based Technology) in the face of public examination in our dear country is now a welcome development
In addition to its numerous advantages, a candidate with a challenge in her hands due to paralysis used her toes during registration for biometrics and punching of keyboards during CBT examination’’
Past incidences of a corrupt-ridden examination processes no doubt, may have spurred JAMB to seek alternative and modern ways of resolving these challenging which of course at the onset were not without obvious setbacks. Some of the initial challenges the Computer Based Test (CBT) had were cases where candidates before the commencement of examination would copy supposedly answers from their cell phones into small sheets of papers, which they hid in secluded parts of their body including their private parts to beat security officers.
In all 8,774 results were seized in the 2014 UTME due to irregularities thus representing 0.5 per cent as against 12,806 seized results in 2013 representing 0.7 per cent. Efforts by government and stakeholders in the education sector to curtail the ugly trend yielded little results until JAMB came up with its CBT which it plans to institutionalize in the conduct of UTME from 2015. For JAMB, the reasons adduced for adopting CBT fully in the conduct of UTME is that it would completely curb examination malpractices as well as eliminate result blackout. Moreover cases of incomplete results will be greatly minimized but above all it would save the board the rigors and challenges of logistics associated with the conduct of the examination simultaneously in all the states of the federation.
To further curtail the menace of malpractices, JAMB also decided to invoke the 1999 Examination Malpractice Act which stipulates that any candidate who is involved in any act of examination malpractice would be banned from sitting for the board’s examination for one (1) to three (3) years depending on the gravity of the offence.
In its fight against malpractices, JAMB had also taken measures in the conduct of the examination and admission of candidates into tertiary institutions where during registration, admitted candidates must be requested to present the Board’s admission letter, photo album and biometric data verification proofs
On the challenge posed by inadequate infrastructure for the full conduct of the CBT examination, JAMB told its audience that it Presently have over 156 well furnished CBT centres nationwide and that out of this number, 10 were personally built by the Board.
It will be recalled the Minister of state for Education, Chief Nyesom Wike, while commissioning some of the centre, urged the board to do everything possible to maintain the standard already set with the introduction of CBT in large scale assessment.
Implementation of past decisions
The piecemeal implementation of the policy decisions of the past decades appeared to have faded with the guidelines and decisions of the Policy meetings were noted to have been implemented at the Technical Committee meetings, under the Chairmanship of the Registrar/Chief Executive of the Board and through forty-four (44) Admissions Panels; Each being chaired by a Management staff of the Board.
