Experts urge govt to reinstate post-UTME

Stakeholders in the education sector have urged the Federal Government to rescind its decision on the cancellation of post-Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (post-UTME).

They also challenged the new Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu, to endeavour to consult stakeholders within the system before taking decisions on key issues.

Presenting a paper entitled, “Integrity of Public Examinations and Admission in Nigeria,” at the inaugural education summit organised by the Education Writers’ Association of Nigeria (EWAN) yesterday, former Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission (NUC), Prof. Peter Okebukola, traced the foundation of the post-UTME to the decline in the quality of admission seekers to higher institutions in the past, adding that rather that outright cancellation, the scheme should be restructured to meet set goals.

National President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Biodun Ogunyemi, reiterated the association’s stance that it was the primary responsibility of the senate of each institution to admit and graduate students. He vowed that ASUU would continue to fight the suspension of the post-UTME.

He, therefore, suggested that instead of scrapping it, the fees charged by the institutions should be regulated.

But former Minister of Education, Prof. Chinwe Obaji, lamented that the initiative she brought about as a response to the loss of integrity in the public examinations, including the UTME and the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE), among others, has been rubbished by the institutions by jettisoning the original idea behind it.

Others, who spoke at the forum, including members of ASUU, Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP), Secretary of the Association of Vice Chancellors of Nigerian Universities (AVCNU), Prof. Michael Faborode and the chief host, Vice Chancellor of University of Lagos (UNILAG), Prof. Rahamon Bello, appealed to the Federal Government to reintroduce the Higher School Certificate programme to bring back the integrity of public examinations; restructure the entrance examinations by institutions and implement the 2002 National Summit on Higher Education.