JAMB can’t determine admission guidelines for varsities, says ASUU

From the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) came yesterday a declaration that the power to determine admission guidelines for universities is beyond the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB).

Essentially, ASUU, while reminding the examination body of university autonomy, maintained that only the Senate of a tertiary institution has the power to regulate admission modalities and determine what best suits the vision of the school.

Chairman of the University of Ibadan (UI) chapter of ASUU, Dr. Deji Omole, in his reaction said both the Education Minister, Adamu Adamu and JAMB Registrar, Prof. Dibu Ojerinde erred in their actions. Omole said the duo appeared confused and inconsistent by first going against collection of administrative charges under Post- Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) by universities and then preaching payment of screening fees in its guidelines.

The ASUU boss said both the minister and JAMB registrar seemed unaware of happenings in the nation’s universities as the “so called point-based scoring system” is not new. Omole, who noted that the scoring system being introduced by JAMB was innovated and used in UI for five years and abandoned, said the premier university had moved beyond such model of admitting students.

According to him, the question of admission is not about the introduction of screening charges. He said the union would resist any attempt to trample upon university autonomy and the supremacy of the Senate of universities to regulate its admission.

If the new guideline is allowed, Omole said, candidates who combined results from two sittings at O’levels would be deprived alongside awaiting result candidates.

“JAMB is acting beyond its mandate which is to conduct examinations and release results. Only the Senate of universities have 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’s credibility as an examination body is yearly being queried. JAMB and its handlers are confused.

“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 centres will spring up and both JAMB and the minister would have succeeded in entrenching corruption and further kill university education in Nigeria,” Omole said.