By; BAYO AKAMO, Ibadan.
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) on Thursday declared that the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) lacked the powers to dictate admission guidelines for Nigerian Universities.
Chairman of the University of Ibadan chapter of the union, Dr Deji Omole stated this while reacting to the 2016 admission guidelines released by JAMB.
According to ASUU, “it is the mandate of the Senate of Nigerian universities through their autonomy to regulate admission modalities and determine what best suits the vision of each institution”.
“JAMB is acting beyond its mandate which is to conduct and release results. The Senate of universities has the right to determine the model or guideline to adopt to admit their students from the pool of candidates sent to it by JAMB. Each university has standards which are not subjected to the whims and caprices of any government appointee. JAMB does not have the powers to tell universities how to conduct their screening. It is a way to cover up their inadequacies because JAMB credibility as an examination body is yearly being queried. JAMB and its handlers are confused” he said.
Dr Omole pointed out that both “the Minister and JAMB Registrar seemed confused and inconsistent by first going against collection of administrative charges under Post-UTME by universities, but now preaching payment of screening fees in “its illegal guidelines which is designed to favour the children of the rich against the poor”.
While lamenting that the “JAMB Registrar, Professor Dibu Ojerinde and Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu seemed to be unaware about happenings in Nigeria universities”, he said “the newly released point – based scoring system is not new as it was innovated and used at the University of Ibadan for five years and abandoned”.
“Last year they arbitrarily placed students in private universities to satisfy the needs of their cronies. These were mainly children of the poor who had not chosen those institutions. In the just concluded JAMB examinations, they awarded candidates with extra 40 marks without any justification. Now those with two sittings results will be shortchanged and those awaiting results will be disadvantaged. There will be rise in result racketeering at WAEC again as people will be purchasing grade ‘A’ since that is what will guarantee admission. More miracle examination centers will spring up and JAMB and the Minister would have succeeded in entrenching corruption and further kill University education in Nigeria”.
Dr Omole maintained that the “question of admission is not about the introduction of screening charges”, and that ASUU will resist any attempt to trample upon university autonomy and the supremacy of the Senate of universities to regulate its admission.
