Agency Report/
A Monitoring and Evaluation Expert, Dr Julius Ajah, of the University of Abuja, says the enforcement of three-year University Tertiary Matriculation Examination results for admissions will weaken the institutions.
Ajah, who is also a lecturer in the Faculty of Agricultural Economics of the university, made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria in Abuja.
He, however, advised the relevant authority to stop the ongoing process to amend the Act establishing JAMB.
“What they should do is to strengthen the admission process by removing or stopping the so called catchment areas or supplementary list in all federal tertiary institutions in Nigeria.
“States and private universities can observe “catchment areas or supplementary list” in order to assist educationally disadvantaged states.
“They are on the process of weakening the strength of the institution responsible for UTME and will eventually end up in reducing the quality of education in Nigeria if enforced.’’
Ajah explained that the amendment would only jeopardise the chances of prospective candidates seeking admissions into highly competitive courses in the tertiary institutions in Nigeria.
According to him, most of them will be trapped in a web of administrative confusion with nobody or institution to run to if they miss admission in the first year.
He said the amendment would also breed laziness and poor attitude to reading among prospective UTME candidates.
“Many of them who fail to get admission in the first year but have minimum qualification will relax without reading.
“ It will cause confusion because some programmes in some tertiary institutions, especially universities, may lose accreditation within the validity period of the UTME results without the prospective candidates knowing.
“ It will deceive many prospective candidates and they will stay at home for three years without admission especially those that scored low but meet the minimum UTME requirements.’’
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