Legality Of Post-UTME Test Conducted by Universities Stirs Controversy In The Senate

A Few weeks ago, Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, (representing Bayelsa West) tabled a motion before the Senate seeking to declare the Post-Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (Post-UTME) test conducted by universities across the country illegal.

Senator Lokpobiri forcefully argued that the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) is the sole body charged with the responsibility of conducting matriculation examination for admission into tertiary institutions in the country and that the Post-UTME test is a gross violation of the JAMB Act.

Some senators who supported his argument cited other reasons for their opposition including the allegation that candidates were being made to pay prohibitive cost to sit for the test. A number of other senators expressed strong support for the test citing the need to maintain standards in admission into tertiary institutions in the country.

As reported by the media, the Senate finally mandated its Committee on Education to undertake a comprehensive investigation into the activities of universities involved in the test. In this contribution, I shall restrict myself to the debate on the legality of the Post-UTME test since in truth that remains the only real substance of Senator Lokpobiri’s motion.

Unsustainable arguments

In my view, all other arguments against the conduct of the test are rather unsustainable as they amount to an effete but rather tendentious attempt by the senators to micro-manage the affairs of the universities even in the face of extant statutes which have conferred autonomy on universities, especially in academic matters, including most notably the Universities (Miscellaneous Provisions) (Amendment) Act, passed by the fifth National Assembly and assented to by President Olusegun Obasanjo on 10th July 2003. 

Before proceeding to extrapolate our position, it is necessary to provide a brief insight into what informed the institution of the Post-UTME test. Within a period of less than two decades from 1978 when the centralized tertiary matriculation examination conducted by the JAMB was introduced by the then military administration of General Olusegun Obasanjo, it became embarrassingly clear that candidates with fantastic scores in the examination could no longer justify their scores in the course of their studentship.

In fact, a disturbingly high number of them were being withdrawn even during the first year of their course of study. Many of them were also found to form the bulk of cultists in their various institutions. On the contrary, it was found that a good number of candidates with modest scores constitute the rank of excellent students and those who graduate without being involved in cultism, examination malpractices or other forms of nefarious activities in their institutions. These findings were the result of empirical studies carried out and published by scholars in the country over the years.

Convinced that the findings were alarming enough to deserve a fresh policy approach with a view to redressing them, all stakeholders in the sector, including officers of the Federal and State Ministries of Education, JAMB, the National Universities Commission (NUC) and the Association of Vice-Chancellors of Nigerian Universities (AVNU) resolved that tertiary institutions be permitted to conduct a form of quality assurance test on candidates that have scored at least 200 and above (or as the case may be, 180 and above) in the UTME. As we shall now illustrate below, the stakeholders were able to find sufficient legal bases for this initiative, hence there was no need to approach the National Assembly for a special legislation to give effect to their decision.

To understand the legal justification for the test, the following pieces of legislation are relevant, namely: Joint Admissions and Matriculation Examination Board Act, (as amended), Universities (Miscellaneous Provisions) (Amendment) Act and the statutes establishing universities in Nigeria; for instance, the University of Benin (Transitional Provisions) Act, an Act which is almost entirely similar to other statutes establishing universities in the country.

It is conceded that Senator Lokpobiri was partly correct when he argued that the JAMB (hereafter, “the Board”) is the sole body charged with the power to conduct matriculation examination for undergraduate admissions into tertiary institutions in the country. This is by virtue of the clear provisions of section 5 (1) (a) and (2) of the JAMB Act.

Nevertheless, in placing or admitting suitably qualified candidates into these institutions, the Board is required by section 5(1)(c) of the JAMB Act to act in collaboration with the tertiary institutions after taking into account (i) the vacancies available in each tertiary institution; (ii) the guidelines approved for each tertiary institution by its proprietor or other competent authority; (iii) the preferences expressed or otherwise indicated by candidates for certain tertiary institutions and courses; and (iv) such other matters as the Board may be directed by the Minister to consider or the Board itself may consider appropriate in the circumstances.

It is immediately obvious from the foregoing that after the matriculation examination which is virtually the sole responsibility of the Board to administer, the JAMB Act requires the Board to collaborate with tertiary institutions for the purpose of placing qualified candidates into such institutions regard being had to some parameters set out in section 5(1)(c)(i)-(iv) thereof.

Of particular relevance to our discourse is the mandatory requirement placed upon the Board to take account of “the guidelines approved for each institution by its proprietor or other competent authority” (section 5(1)(c)(ii)) and “such other matters as the Board may be directed by the Minister to consider….” (section 5(1)(c)(iv)).

Indeed, the power of the Minister in this regard is further strengthened by section 6 of the JAMB Act which provides that “subject to the provisions of this Act, the Minister may give the Board directives of a general character or relating generally to particular matters with regard to the exercise by the Board of its functions (set out in section 5) under this Act and it shall be the duty of the Board to comply with such directives”.

It is therefore submitted that even within the framework of the JAMB Act alone, the Post-UTME test is quite legal indeed as the input of tertiary institutions and that of the Minister (responsible for education) are mandatorily required to conclude the admission process. As already hinted above, it is within this legal context that Mrs Chinwe Obaji, the then Minister of Education instituted the Post-UTME test in 2005.

Position of tertiary institutions

It is also within this legal context that the position of tertiary institutions in the country and their heads as represented especially by the Association of Vice-Chancellors of Nigerian Universities (AVNU) supporting the continuance of the test remain unassailable. 

Indeed, the position of the AVNU in particular can be further fortified by reference to the provisions of the Universities (Miscellaneous Provisions) (Amendment Act) 2003 and the various statutes establishing universities across the country which guarantee autonomy to university senate in academic matters, including admission of students.

For the avoidance of doubt, section 7A(2)(b) of the Universities (Miscellaneous Provisions) (Amendment Act) provides that “the senate (of each university) shall have powers in all academic matters including the organization and control of …. Admissions of students”; while section 10(2)(e) of the university of benin (transitional provisions) act (which is impari materia with those of other universities in nigeria) provides that “ it shall in particular be the function of the Senate to make provision for …. the selection of persons for admission as students of the University”.

Source: Vanguard News