Article published in The Nation Newspaper
16/06/2010
Those ‘joyous’ at NASS’s suspension of Post-UME Tests have misplaced priorities because they have 100% success in weeding out the ‘419ers, cheaters, fraudsters and mercenaries at JAMB examinations which ‘fell into disrepute’, among teachers and lecturers and were feared because of fraud which disenfranchised the honest student.
It is a credit to the integrity of recent JAMB and university leadership that the JAMB exam is being slowly repositioned as an examination ‘where it does not pay to cheat’ because they will catch you later with better ID screening and immediate results, mercenaries are caught with the collusion of supervisors, fraudulently changed results and purchase of fake ‘inflated results’ are reduced from fraudulent staff. And this is why the Post UME Tests are critisised. They are too successful in anti-419 activities. Post UME Tests were introduced after pressure from me and others believing in saving our tertiary education system from 419 vandals who cheated their way into our universities with no good intentions and contributed to the failure of the university system to meet national challenges. ‘Garbage in — Garbage out’, ‘Faked results in—faked results out’, ‘corruption in—Cults out’ are important sayings in tertiary education. The word tertiary means that education is for the brainy, brave and studious and not everyone who has a parent willing to pay mercenaries or a 419 staff to ‘fix’ JAMB scores. We all saw and suffered from the desperately poor quality of students and the consequent corruption and failure among the products of JAMB corruptly penetrating the University system in the last 25 years. The Post UME Test was a creative solution in fighting the education ills in JAMB returning tot he university powers it lost to JAMB. Paradoxically it helped JAMB achieve its goals. But what were JAMB’s 1970s goals, political and educational?
The Post UME Tests must be credited in Nigeria’s educational history not as an obstacle to ‘exam success’ but as a weapon to support the ambition of honest students and lecturers and the integrity of Nigeria’s tertiary education system, of which I am a proud beneficiary. That integrity must be protected and elevated ‘back’ to former international standards. NASS cannot be trusted with this task. In fact the NASS has made a mistake to remove from the universities their right and opportunity to re-examine suspect students with glowing JAMB results not compatible with a poor post-entry performance. The university lecturer faced with a batch of new students must be instructed to isolate, report and offer up for re-examination any deficient student. There is no Nigerian standard for education, just an international standard, like Aviation standards, to which an intelligent Nigeria must aspire in spite of ethnic politics. Only universities, not NASS, can judge university students. This is not simply ‘four year election 419’, it is a lifetime 419. A ‘watchdog’ should not attack what it is watching. The cheats take up other’ space, deny honest students opportunities and destroy the system with irresponsibility and cult activities to ‘get’ a degree, and everyone including Nigeria, loses out. In the 60s we had an important verification faculty interview to prove we were who we said we were and had a brain.
Nigerian universities must insist on their right to refer back to NUC or JAMB, re-examine, suspend or refuse admission to even the highest JAMB scorer if found to be of suspect educational content incompatible with preposterous JAMB scores or should we send them to NASS? The mechanism for investigations and refusals must be quickly put in place before the next admission exercise to prevent a tsunami of cheating, mercenaries and fraud in JAMB to get a good score at all costs. The score should not count as much as ‘The First Three Months Performance’ in University –the weeding time. Honest lecturers easily identify JAMB-fraudulent students. Matriculation must be postponed for lecturers to scientifically assess ‘freshers’ through routine methods-papers, participation and performance.
Are NASS members, not known for high electoral standards, qualified citizens to give judgement on universitiy admission? Are NASS members or anxious parents aware of their responsibility to maintain standards of Nigerian education? In a Nigeria with 70,000 schools without libraries beg NASS to close all schools without libraries. This Post UME Test cancellation is a wrong decision spelling a deathnell to recent keen efforts by universities to re-erect old standards for students seeking admission. This new NASS directive must be qualified by a NASS committment to the caveat empowering each University with ‘Final Right of Refusal/withdrawal if the student is found to be below expectation even after wrongful admission’. Once in the system, on campus with a matriculation number, many ‘students’ without ambition or ability, play around for years repeatedly failing and changing courses and, like termites they destroy the university, feeding corruption and cultism. NASS has just contributed to a new wave of cults. Surely a Commission on Higher Education would be a better ajudicator. Remember JAMB was set up ‘viciously’ to ‘jam’ and ‘accident’ the aspirations of millions of ‘over-qualified Nigerians’. It did its work well truncating many aspirations and apparently it has not yet finished its secret ‘legalised’ mission. JAMB incompetence is the problem overcome by the Post UME Tests. CountdowNigeria@50 -99 asks should JAMB be abolished in favour of direct internet approaches to universities like in most countries. NASS should emergency budget N20b for library books but keep clear of sick education policies.