by Alexander O. Onukwue
Why has JAMB chosen to reduce the cut-off marks for admissions into universities, polytechnics, and other institutions?
“They want to make money for the boys” was the view of Okhiria Agbonsuremi, on Raypower radio’s political platform, and his colleagues in the studio did not diverge much from that.
All things considered, neither should we.
The true constitution of “The boys” would rather be the point of enquiry here but that this new policy has been designed to the financial benefit of some persons should not be in question. In the first place, there is no case for improving the quality of education, research and innovation in the nation’s schools by making it a come-as-you-are affair. Secondly, this is no guarantee that institutions will admit more students – and in saying that, we may just have found the first members of the “the boys”.
Yes, the admitting institutions, many of whom are presently on strike for their demands of the Government, including a whooping One Trillion naira revitalization fund.
With the revised cut-off marks, many more thousands of students will be welcome by schools to write the now restored post-UTME, after it was scrapped just under 24 months ago. Whether as first or second choice, universities and polytechnics will have students flocking to their campuses and other centres to write the second-stage entrance exams at a cost determined by each school.
It means that these many students, who have been given increased hope of admission by JAMB, will spend about N6000 on the first stage and, in many places, almost an equivalent on the second stage, yet without any assurance of admission.
This does not include the other envelopes that will exchange hands and alerts that will be received to facilitate the admission process, though this occurs in the more informal sector of the institutions, among students, lower administrative staff, and even persons who own on-campus businesses. With the market of students to defraud set to increase vastly, everybody will suddenly know somebody in the Senate, all without any receipts issuable for the transactions.
Perhaps the National Bureau of Statistics and their partners should be ready to conduct another survey on corruption; this time, the Police may be given a run for their money by officers in tertiary institutions, thanks to JAMB’s new rules.
