Your Excellency, I don’t know if
this letter will ever get to you but I pray it does. May I use this opportunity
to congratulate you on your second coming to the throne in Nigeria. The fact
that you defeated an incumbent at the polls in a democratic setting attests to
your acceptability among Nigerians. All may not have voted for you but you
remain the people’s choice nonetheless. We write this letter based on your
inaugural speech dictum: “I belong to everybody and I belong to nobody”. We
interpret that parable as meaning you will serve everybody fairly and
discriminate against none. We therefore expect your second coming to right many
wrongs and put our nation in a better position than you inherited. Many things
have gone wrong in our country and it is on one of such ills that I am writing
to you. It is about admission into tertiary institutions in Nigeria.
I read in a foreign tabloid that
‘admission into Nigeria’s higher institutions is highly competitive’. That
statement is true, and may be a mild way to express it. We wish to bring to
Your Excellency’s notice, that the path to admission into our higher
institutions is financially and procedurally burdensome. This is the problem we
are calling Your Excellency’s attention to because it has become a cause of
anxiety and tension to many prospective candidates and their parents, and also created
much room for fraud.
I wish to recall, Your Excellency,
that after my Ordinary Level (O Level) exam in 1976, I was admitted same year
into Federal School of Arts and Science, Sokoto, for the two-Session Advanced
Level (A Level) course. I did not do more than apply to the school with an
enclosed self-addressed stamped envelope. The school replied, offered me the
admission, and off I went. Our transport fare, feeding, and accommodation were
all taken care of by the Federal Government. Upon finishing 1978, we were
admitted same year into the university as Direct Entry candidates through the
Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB). That was the first year of
JAMB. We were the first candidates. The procedure was as simple as a candidate
applying to JAMB, stating their choice of course and school, and JAMB doing the
placement based on merit.
The problem now is: the road to
securing admission has become overly tortuous and burdensome to both candidates
and their sponsors. It is stressful and financially exacting. There are too
many Scratch Cards to buy, each at exorbitant amount. It could turn out that
the student may not eventually secure the admission, and has to repeat the
process all over the following year at ever-increasing rates relative to the
previous year. Some students have had to pass through this tortuous and
tormenting road five times in five years before passing JAMB exam and getting
the original print-out of their result.
For example, Your Excellency, one
has to pay some four to five thousand Naira (N4,000 – 5,000) to buy JAMB form,
then pay another N1,000 to N2,000 to register the candidate online to get an
original print-out of the slip that would enable the candidate write the exam.
This could all be done at less cost if JAMB so wished. When the result is
released, one has to buy another Scratch Card of about a thousand Naira merely
to check the result, where possibly, alternative means of solving that could be
set in the system without cost to the candidate.
Then enter the higher institutions
with their Aptitude Test for those who hurdled past JAMB successfully. The form
for the Aptitude Test sell between N3,000 and N5,000. Then they demand that the
student produce four original print-out of their JAMB result. The JAMB Scratch
Card for each of this is about N2,000. After the Aptitude Test, the school
eventually settles to picking who they want based on any other factor but
merit. We say this with due respect and apology to those very few schools that
still maintain integrity in making merit their watchword. When the students
secure the admission, they go through another round of stress in registration
at the schools for which another round of Scratch Card purchase begins. And on
and on it goes, and has been for years.
It is even said that registering
for the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) is now done online using Scratch
Card. In fact, Scratch Card has become the new business for any who want to
make it fast in Nigeria.
Your Excellency, it can be seen the
stress our children are made to go through just to improve their lives, and,
unfortunately, by those who themselves never went through such stress. It is
like scaling over a low height and raising the bar to what we may not have been
able to scale through ourselves. It is not unlikely this might be responsible
for many seeking admission outside the country. People would normally prefer
where their needs are met without stress.
It is our humble opinion, Your
Excellency, that the Federal Government can reduce this burden. Some Federal
legislators have, in the past, called for the scrapping of JAMB so as to allow
students apply directly to their institutions of choice as it was in the past.
We support this view. JAMB has become a clog in the wheel of students’
admission into higher institutions. It has outlived its usefulness. They are
not doing anything more than what the schools themselves could do. The schools
have been doing that ever before JAMB existed. The continued existence of JAMB
is duplication of effort and a waste on the nation’s scarce resources. Let JAMB
be scrapped, and admissions into Nigeria’s higher institutions will be easier
and better.
Wishing Your Excellency God’s
wisdom and a successful tenure in office. God bless you, Sir.
Esesien
Ita.
True Nigerian
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