JAMB No Longer Relevant – ASUU

Chairman, Academic Staff Union of Universities, University of Ibadan chapter, Prof. Josiah Ajiboye, tells. Our Source Bayo Akinloye that recent activities of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board have shown that the organisation is no longer credible
Many people have condemned the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board's recent action to change candidates' choice of institutions. What is your view on the policy?
My view on the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board's decision to reallocate students to universities other than those they selected is a condemnable act.
JAMB took a very wrong decision — and a criminal one for that matter — because it sets aside the right of Nigerians to freedom of choice. The criminal aspect is that a public institution like JAMB cannot be a promoter of private establishments.
For the admission board to have reassigned candidates to private universities, using public fund, is criminal. The question is in whose interest did JAMB do that? Many Nigerians have speculated that there is more to the issue than meets the eye. Many are speculating private universities' inducement (to get JAMB to act to their advantage); we need to confirm though. But going by the argument that in 2014, only two per cent of candidates, who sat the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination, applied to private universities, subsequently, JAMB was trying to correct that imbalance through re-allocation. Obviously, something is fishy there.
Do you think JAMB has become a 'clearing house' for some universities as some people have claimed?
JAMB, from its inception, is expected to serve as a mere clearing house for admission into universities. However, the examinations conducted by it over the years have suffered credibility problem. Many Nigerians have lost hope in the examination body as a credible examining body. They have accused the body on many fronts. An instance is when a parent, who was told that his ward's UTME score could not fetch him admission and the father asked what mark would qualify the child. After he was informed about the needed score, the father returned later with the required grade! Incredible, you will say, but that is the truth.
Would you prefer that universities set their admission tests?
Due to the failure of the examination body (JAMB), universities started the post-UTME test. This is the final to the failure of JAMB. We have actually reached a stage in Nigeria where we should return to the era when each university conducted its entry examination. If it is about federal character or quota system, in terms of admission, it is no longer relevant as each state of the federation now has a federal university located in it. In addition, states now have their universities; some even have more than one. With at least a federal university in each state of the federation, this issue of JAMB serving as a clearing house is now irrelevant. Let each applicant be free to select any three or four universities of his or her choice, eventually they will succeed in one. And to eliminate overlap in admission so that an individual will not have multiple offers while others are denied; this is where you need a committee of admission officers of universities to sit and harmonise their positions.
Won't the universities abuse that opportunity?
I do not see how universities can abuse that. Rather, it will strengthen the autonomy universities have been struggling to achieve. A university can go as far as Australia to source for students. That will also strengthen the internationalisation drive of our universities. Then, our universities would be able to compete with their foreign peers. This localisation principle has not helped our universities' growth. When universities begin to source for candidates globally, then the competition begins; one can then classify the universities: first-generation, second-generation and state universities. The candidates will be free to pick one university from each of the categories. You could add a final category if you like: private universities. But I strongly believe private universities should be able to scout for their students independent of any public agency. JAMB can then monitor universities for compliance with set guidelines, if the government still wants to retain it to check abuse from universities.
Are you saying the exam body should be scrapped?
The question of whether it should be scrapped or not should be left to Nigerians; they should decide on what to do with the agency after universities have been granted permission to conduct their entry examinations.
Do universities have the capacity to conduct admission exams for prospective candidates?
I do not doubt the competency of our universities to conduct entry examinations. In any case, they are already doing that through the post-UTME test. The universities have everything to conduct more credible examinations than the sham currently being peddled by JAMB; no doubt about that. Besides, studies have been conducted to support that position. To doubt the capacity of universities to conduct entrance examinations is to doubt the quality of lecturers and professors in our universities. Who actually prepares the UTME questions? Are they not our colleagues from the universities? In the first instance, the Senate of each university is vested with the powers to determine the academic affairs of the university, including those to be admitted into its programmes. I have no doubt in my mind that our universities are capable of conducting entrance examinations. Like I said earlier, they have already started with the post-UTME, which has been described as less rancorous and more credible than what is done by JAMB.
The argument in some quarters is that JAMB is responsible for the sanity currently enjoyed in terms of entrance examinations into tertiary institutions.
JAMB lost it (credibility) long ago. The agency has destroyed the dream of many young Nigerians for university education through its actions and inactions. Many were frustrated to surrender their ambition for university education. Let Nigerians decide now. I call on the government to set up a review panel on admission crisis in Nigerian tertiary institutions. The continued existence of JAMB should be determined now. From past records of agreements between the Academic Staff Union of Universities and the Federal Government over the years, the restructuring of JAMB has always been part of the agreements. It's only that successive governments have failed to implement that part of the agreements. University autonomy will not be complete until that omnibus body called JAMB is removed.