Stakeholders Call For The Reinstatement Of post-UTME

Stakeholders Call For The Reinstatement Of post-UTME 



The Former Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission (NUC), Prof Peter Okebukola made this call  for the restoration of the post-Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (Post-Utme).

He made the call while delivering the keynote address at the maiden education summit of the Education Writers Association of Nigeria (EWAN), with the theme: Integrity of public examinations and admission to universities in Nigeria.

He was joined by former Education Minister, Mrs Chinwe Obaji, National President, Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Prof Biodun Ogunyemi, and other stakeholders, who all spoke against the ban.

Okebukola noted: “It is a mistake in the long-term interest of quality of the Nigerian university system to abrogate Post-utme.”
He called for the restoration of the Higher School Certificate (HSC) to rectify the short coming of poor quality of students.

Okebukola said: “To shoot for five-star quality from the present one-star, the admission process through the UTME and Post-UTME should move a notch or two higher in stringency. Reintroduction of the HSC could pull the magic. On the quality front, enrolling beyond programme carrying capacity is recipe for poor quality products. NUC should continue to apply sanctions to breaches of carrying capacity.”

On her part, Mrs Obaji said the purpose of the post-UTME was to overcome the difficulties posed by admission of poor quality of students, among others.
At the event, the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP) threatened to go on a nationwide strike from this week if its grievances are not addressed by the Federal government.

Chairman, ASUP, Federal Polytechnic, Ilaro, Mrs Margaret Olowofila said all lecture rooms in the polytechnics would be shut, because of the shortcomings of the government in its institutions.

Mrs Olowofila said: “Most of our polytechnics are understaffed; they have been paying us fractional salaries since January; they are not addressing infrastructural issues; there are some departments that are run by only five lecturers and government wants them to start Higher National Diploma (HND). We have had talks with them and sent letters but they have refused to attend to our grievances. So we will be forced to take our fate into our own hands if they still don’t answer us by Monday.”