THE difficulties currently being encountered by candidates across Nigeria in their attempts to register for the 2017/2018 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) are a harsh reminder of the inadequacies which continue to undermine the performance of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB).
Ironically, many of the problems stem from the board’s modification of the registration process in order to eliminate discrepancies and reduce fraud to the barest minimum. Whereas scratch cards were previously purchased as a prelude to online registration, the new PIN-vending system requires that candidates acquire electronic Personal Identification Numbers (e-PINs) whose sale has been restricted to specified banks, state offices of JAMB, and approved Computer-Based Test (CBT) centres.
Many of these sanctioned sales points have witnessed chaotic scenes as their premises are flooded by anxious candidates. Matters have apparently been made worse by the poor internet connections which have hampered the generation of e-PINs and the limited number of eligible banks in several states.
In Ebonyi State, only two banks have been authorised to sell forms. Candidates in Owerri, Imo State, claim to be struggling with the problem of invalid e-PINs; their counterparts in Keffi, Akwanga and Lafia local government areas say poor connections to the JAMB website have prevented them from logging on to the site. Hundreds of enraged candidates in Makurdi threatened to burn down the zonal office of the board in the town.
As is usual in situations like these, hordes of unscrupulous operators are exploiting the situation to the fullest. JAMB’s e-Brochure and e-Syllabus, which are supposed to be free, are being sold to candidates. Middlemen are offering e-PINs and forms at between N8,000 and N15,000, instead of the official price of N5,500.
JAMB has responded by arguing that many of the problems are temporary and will soon be fixed. It has commenced raids on cyber cafes suspected of printing fake registration documents; arrests have already been made in Ekiti State. The board has conducted mock examinations in order to test its systems ahead of the examination proper.
In fairness to JAMB, complications such as these are only to be expected, especially given the crisis of access in tertiary education, characterised by the ever-increasing number of candidates competing for the relatively few university places available.
Registration difficulties will occur in normal times, to say nothing of periods when new systems and procedures are just being introduced. Any effort to eliminate racketeering, fraud and corruption in the UTME is welcome, and any complications being experienced as a consequence will have to be endured, as long as they are resolved quickly and completely.
These hitches, however, are only symptoms of a deeper underlying problem – the anomaly that is JAMB itself. It is a centralised examinations and admissions body operating in a federal republic with dozens of supposedly-autonomous tertiary institutions which are all quite capable of conducting their own admissions processes without interference.
JAMB, in effect, is an organisation burdened with a task meant for over 150 universities; unsurprisingly, its performance of this task has become increasingly unsatisfactory to all stakeholders. Universities are irritated by what they regard as JAMB’s interference in their affairs; candidates and parents are continually frustrated with the logistical and other challenges they have to confront; even JAMB itself is scrambling to keep up with the ever-growing weight of its responsibilities.
The equitable distribution of duties is a hallmark of the federal system, and it should be applied to Nigeria’s floundering tertiary admissions system. If universities oversee their own admissions, entrance examinations would be distributed over several institutions, as opposed to one examination body.
Schools in high demand would naturally require more stringent entry standards in order to reduce applications to manageable levels. Less-attractive ones would seek to be more accommodating. In other words, the admissions process would be reasonable, flexible and tailored to the specific needs of widely-divergent schools – everything that it is not at present.
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