BEVERLY HILLS, June 29, (THEWILL) – uThe Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has spoken in defence of the post-unified tertiary matriculation examination (UTME) saying the quality of tertiary education in the country could improve if the institutions were allowed to regulate their students’ admission process.
Biodun Ogunyemi, ASUU President, made this known against the backdrop of the Federal Government’s decision to scrap the Post UTME, which is the second stage of screening usually conducted by universities for the final selection of candidates qualified for admission for an academic session.
THEWILL recalls that the Federal Government, at a recent joint policy meeting to decide the cut off mark for students seeking admission into the universities, announced the scrapping of the Post UTME with a uniform guideline for admission of candidates for the 2016/2017 academic session.
Also, Adamu Adamu, Minister of education, threatened to sanction any university or tertiary institution found conducting examinations under any guise to admit students, directing tertiary institutions that had collected money from candidates for such purposes to immediately refund it or face appropriate sanctions.
However, Ogunyemi declared that such that such directive encroached on the autonomy of the institutions.
“I think government should give these institutions the chance to regulate themselves,” he said.
“They should decide for themselves, the process they dim fit to admit their students. The Senate of universities for example, should decide on the process they want to use in selecting candidates.
“We do not think it is right for government to decide the method of screening of the candidates, indeed, we want to attain some level of sanity and quality in the system.
“Some of the arguments raised in this entire episode is that universities or tertiary institutions were using the conduct of such examination to make money.
“But the truth is, these institutions are poorly funded. If universities for example are properly funded, will the vice-chancellors be looking for other means of making money?
“In the last seven months, university workers have been receiving incomplete salaries, that is, the disbursement of funds for payment of salaries has always been inadequate.
“When situations like this arise, the managements will not be left with any choice than to look inwards and seek means of meeting such needs and one of such strategies is by conducting such examination.
“We in ASUU frown at extortion of any type from students or candidates but the government too should be alive to its responsibilities by providing the enabling environment that will aid teaching, leaning and research.”
Story by David Oputah
