It is not unusual for many candidates to write the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) several times before being admitted. Some of them shared their experiences with KOFOWOROLA BELO-OSAGIE, ADEGUNLE OLUGBAMILA and JANE CHIJIOKE.
THE era of writing the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) once and making it seems to have been long gone.
With an average of 1.5 million candidates writing yearly (1, 272, 284 – 2016; 1, 736, 571 – 2017; 1,652,825 – 2018), and the inability of universities, polytechnics, and colleges of education to absorb eligible candidates, few candidates are lucky to be admitted after their first try.
While those who attended the university in the 80s most likely wrote once, some respondents who completed their secondary education in the 90s told The Nation that they had to take the exam twice or thrice before getting in.
“I did JAMB twice and PolyJAMB once. Spent a year at home and a year in the polytechnic before I went to the university,” said a Lagos banker, who wrote in the era when the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) still conducted separate examinations for university applicants (University Matriculation Examination, UME) on the one hand and Monotechnics, polytechnics and colleges of Education (MPCE Matriculation Examination) for the other category of applicants.
Another respondent said she wrote thrice because of her insistence on studying Law.
“I wrote UTME thrice as I was hell-bent on studying law. I wrote professional exams during my waiting period,” said Mrs Temi Adewole.
Mrs Adewole was lucky to get her desired course after three trials. Omoruyi Bello had to write six times and spent a total of 10 years before gaining admission to the University of Benin by which time he was attending the university while a former sec-ondary school classmate was doing his Masters in the same institution.
Ajose Oladipupo, a 2016 graduate of English from Obafemi Awolowo University, recalled how he made his O Level at a go, but wrote UTME four times before finally striking gold.
“I’d always wanted to study Law and my choice university was OAU,” Oladiupo recounted.
“I first wrote UTME in 2003 but fell below the cut off mark. I tried again in 2014 and got 257, which rekindled my hope of studying for my dream course. But that was never to be as I did not qualify again.
“I eventually settled for Mass Communication at the Polytechnic, Ibadan and while there, I wrote another UTME in 2007, and scored 257. Unfortunately, I missed the date of post-UTME and, again, that put paid on my hope of university admission. It was not until 2010, I tried again and scored 257. I was not considered for Law in OAU though, I decided to settle for English Language where I graduated in 2016.”
The fear of repeating the exam more than once made some candidates stay off. Mr Sulaimon Adebanjo said when he heard about his brother’s friend’s nine-time trial without gaining admission, he prayed not to have anything to do with the UME.
“I was shocked that someone I considered so brilliant could not enter school after nine trials. I prayed to God that I should not have anything to do with JAMB after my secondary education. Fortunately, someone in my neighbourhood told me about LASU Diploma and I put in for it. After completing my Diploma and internship, I gained admission through direct entry and had nothing to do with JAMB again,” he said.
Adebanjo is not the only one that avoided the UTME route into getting a higher education. Olaide Babatunde said she and her three older siblings did not write the UTME.
“I never wrote UTME. My mummy does not like it. All four of us in my home did not take UTME.
“My mum and dad hated that you would wait at home writing UTME again and again. We all got into to school through one programme or the other. My mum did not like you to take UTME without knowing your WASC, so we all waited to see our WASC result. I wanted to take UTME after secondary school, but my father warned me to face the foundation programme I registered for or UTME – that I couldn’t do the two. Since I knew that was the only chance I had, I faced my books to make sure I passed and entered school,” she said.
Others seek alternatives outside Nigeria. That was what Chioma Johnson did.
“I wrote the UTME twice could not make it then travelled to Ghana where I was admitted into a private school,” she said.
While in the past, many of those who took the UTME more than once likely did so because they fell a few marks short of the cutoff mark, the situation is quite complicated today. Many candidates not gaining admission are left out not because they did not make the cut off score.
A parent lamented on her church’s social media group page that her son was not admitted despite scoring 268 in the last year’s UTME and 66 per cent in the post-UTME conducted by the University of Ilorin (the cutoff mark was 55 per cent).
“Where exactly are we going to in this country?” she asked in frustration.
Another frustrated father, who had thought 288 was good enough to get his son into the medical programme of the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, his alma mater, has not still got over the disappointment that he neither got in for Medicine or any other course.
“I still feel very bad,” said the journalist, who does not wish to be named.
This year’s UTME, which ended recently, was the third his son had written. The first, which got him admitted into the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso, was abandoned because of the institution’s protracted crisis.
Another candidate, who is also very sad, is Ifeoluwa Abioye. While Ife, 22, is making his third shot at UTME, scored 200 in this year’s UTME, Dara, his younger sister by four years, made 250 at her very first attempt.
“I don’t know if this is my fault or JAMB’s, Ife said with sadness written all over him.
“I was the best in my secondary school days. I made my result at the first attempt. This is my third time of writing UTME. I wanted to study Agric Economics and I chose University of Ibadan. But this (UTME) result has again dampened my hope. I have been told UI is competitive and that my UTME score must be very high for me to be considered for that score. But now, I just don’t know what to do again.”
With reports of some UTME candidates committing suicide, the problem of lack of access has become more worrisome.
However, though many public-owned tertiary institutions in Nigeria are over-subscribed, it is not so with the private schools. But cost deters candidates from poor backgrounds from applying to such schools as they cannot afford the fees.
Vice-Chancellor of Augustine University, Epe, Lagos, said the Federal Government could solve the problem by endowing scholarships in private universities so they can attract more students.
Speaking at the university’s matriculation, he said: “An aspect of the emergency should involve the inclusion of Private Universities is the competitive scholarship and grant schemes of government as a way of increasing the attraction of students who hope to benefit from such competition.”
Nevertheless, an IBM IT Instructor, Mr Emmanuel Chukwu, said not all candidates should be desperate to take the UTME and go to the university.
“University is not for everybody. In Germany, United States, not everyone goes to the university and it does not take away from their fulfillment as people. If these young school leavers would just pursue other routes, they will not be frustrated by JAMB. Microsoft has so many professional programmes that are equivalent to taking 10 PhDs,” he said.
Other alternative routes that seco ndary school leavers seeking higher qualifications may pursue include the Accounting Technician Scheme (ATS) of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN), which they can start with to become chartered, certificate and diploma programmes of the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (NIPR), which are equivalent to the National Diploma (NIPR certificate) and first degree (NIPR Diploma) qualifications.