By Olanrewaju Adesanya
Head, Public Affairs and Protocols of the Joint Admissions and Matriculations Board (JAMB) Dr Fabian Benjamin, has advocated for the establishment of a National Education Admission Insurance Scheme that would ensure that children and wards of the poor and indigents in the society gain admission into universities in the country.
Speaking in a goodwill message at the fifth Annual General Meeting of the Guild of Corporate Online Publishers (GOCOP), which held last Thursday, Benjamin said only by establishing such scheme that would make it possible for the children of the poor to access funding will there be enough spaces for all those who are qualified every year to gain admission into the university or other tertiary institutions preferred by candidates.
He said though not primarily established as an examination body, JAMB has been burdened every year with the responsibility of assisting qualified students gained admission into the available spaces in public, states and private universities for tertiary education in the country.
He said: “What we have seen year in year out, is that demand for university places often outstrips supply and many, who are qualified end up not having any space as a result of the skewed admission and the cost differentials in both the Federal and the state and between the government controlled and private controlled institutions.”
According to him, this has led to the over hyped issue of cut-off points for admissions, adding that though JAMB does not set cut-off for any institution of higher learning, it merely help modulate to ensure that every segment of the society is fairly treated or represented in accordance with the demands of the constitution.
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He noted that nowhere in the world are admissions solely based on merit, adding that for Nigeria, admission criteria into tertiary institutions are based on three major pillars; merit, catchment area (CA), and educationally disadvantaged states (EDS), just to ensure fairness and equitable distribution of admission opportunities for the Nigerian Child.
Still speaking on the contentious issue of cut-off point, Banjamin said each year, all tertiary institutions at a meeting usually agree on the barest benchmark below which they or their adjunct institutions would not go in admitting any student seeking admission, adding that this does not indicate that each university using other parametres cannot arrive at any higher benchmark as its admission criteria.
Essentially, he said, what qualifies a candidate for admission is the Ordinary Level result acquired by the student and not the JAMB cut-off, adding that notwithstanding the mark scored in UTME, any student who does not have the prerequisite admission of appropriate WAEC or NECO subjects are not given admission in any Nigerian universities.
For him, the game changer would be the establishment of an insurance scheme that would ensure that people seeking admission can approach for loans and utilise this to prospect admission into private institutions which for now seemed way too expensive for majority of average Nigerians.
He said: “What we often found out is that there are usually spaces every year in so many of our private universities as many of the students are not picking them because they are perceived to be very costly, while there would be extremely stiff competition in few institutions, especially the public ones, because they are affordable. This is responsible for the cut-off war, to ensure that only the fittest are given admission, while others, are sadly denied because of lack of access to funds.
“Unfortunately this is not the reason why these universities were created by the government. They were given licence in order to create spaces for the growing numbers of Nigerians who need access to quality education, but they are not able to fulfill this mandate because the students and their parents or guardians could not afford the cost. This is what an education insurance scheme will help to bridge, so that there could be equal opportunity for all Nigerians who are qualified to have equal access to education, irrespective of their background or economic status in the society.