The management of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) yesterday released the results of the 2011 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) held in Nigeria and six other foreign countries owing to the introduction of the biometric technology.
However, about 28,069 results are withheld for investigation.
A total of 1,493,604 candidates sat for the examination last Saturday.
Dibu Ojerinde, Registrar and Chief Executive of JAMB, who announced the release of the results in Abuja, said despite the merger of the entrance examinations to become the UTME in 2010, studies showed a general preference for university education.
Ojerinde said the University of Lagos had 99,195 applications, but it could only admit 9,507 candidates, adding that the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria had 89,760 applications.
He gave a breakdown of this year’s UTME scores, saying, 102,069 candidates scored above 250, while 2,892 candidates scored 300 and above.
485,426 candidates scored between 200 and 249, while 31,444 scored between 270 and 299.
The JAMB boss, who said the board would improve on the use of the biometric data capturing technology in future, debunked insinuations by the media that the biometric concept was unsuccessful.
We should return to GCE A/L minimum admission qualification, UTME is undesirable
A first degree in the university, in general, should be strictly a three year course as before. The minimum entry qualification for the three years first degree course should be three subjects in GCE advanced level (A/L) at one sitting or four subjects at two sittings or a two your Access Diploma course, similar to the present OND. The previous one-year preliminary course that is generally taken at the University before a first-degree course should not be entertained in the country again.
HND and NCE should be a three year course while OND is abolished. The minimum entry qualification for the HND and NCE courses should be Secondary School Certificate/GCE ordinary level and their equivalents.
GCE A/L or an Access Diploma that is a two-year course enable a student to be matured and fundamentally ready to take on higher education, etc, with responsibility, little or none of the distractions and undesirable indulgence we now witness in the higher educational institutions in the country, such as cultism. Moreover, the holder of GCE A/L, etc. is less likely to repeat or becomes an outright dropout.
The GCE A/L and its related Access Diploma course that normally take two years always create opportunity for private educational institution establishments. This post secondary education preparatory institution, for higher education, is the area where private education is much needed in the country rather than at the tertiary stage where they are not so required. For example, the preparatory schools would be fresh sources for the much needed employment in the country.
Primary school education as before should be strictly a six year course. Secondary school education as before should strictly be a five-year course. The GCE A/L and its equivalent Access Diploma courses should be a two-year course. A University first degree as before should strictly be a three-year course. That is a 6-5-2-3 system of education.
Strikes should be barred in both the Education and Health sectors of the country. All the unresolved disputes between the employees and employer in these sectors should always be handled by an arbitration that is jointly established by the employer and union of employees, without going on strike.
As potential higher education students always take the GCE A/L, etc at their own time, this would stagger admission and reduce the number of applicants at a time within even the current capacity of the present universities in the country. If the GCE A/L system of minimum qualification is adopted now within the next two years we would have fewer students to admit to the universities. This would give the universities time, enable them to concentrate well on the few available students for admission and to reorganise the running of the institutions. In general, it will improve the standard of our education and quality of first degree as it was before and to world standard.
The present UTME and system of education are undesirable. The question now, have we got the right Federal Government to do the right things?
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