The Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, on Wednesday, kicked
against the Federal Government’s directive for tertiary institutions to
scrap the Post-Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination, Post-UTME,
for admission of candidates for the 2016/2017 academic session, saying
the quality of tertiary education in the country could improve if the
institutions are allowed to regulate their students admission process.
ASUU President, Comrade Biodun Ogunyemi, said such freedom would enhance the quality of education.
Recall
that at a recent joint policy meeting to decide the cut off mark for
students seeking admission into the universities, the government
announced the scrapping of post-unified tertiary matriculation
examination (UTME).
The Post UTME is the second stage of
screening usually conducted by universities for the final selection of
candidates qualified for admission for an academic session.
Minister
of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu had threatened to sanction any
university or tertiary institution found conducting examinations under
any guise to admit students.
He further directed tertiary
institutions that had collected money from candidates for such purposes
to immediately refund it or face appropriate sanctions.
The ASUU boss told NAN that such directive encroached on the autonomy of the institutions.
“I think government should give these institutions the chance to regulate themselves,” he said.
“They
should decide for themselves, the process they dim fit to admit their
students. The Senate of universities for example, should decide on the
process they want to use in selecting candidates.
“We do not
think it’s right for government to decide the method of screening of the
candidates, indeed, we want to attain some level of sanity and quality
in the system.”
The unionist added that government could only
come into the process by putting in place the necessary guidelines as
part of their oversight functions.
According to him, it may not
also be easy for institutions that had already collected money for the
conduct of the post-UTME or screening in whatever guise to refund such
money.
He added that this was because such money could have been diverted to other purposes.
Ogunyemi
noted that most universities were under-funded and therefore, might
have used some of the money to attend to urgent needs of the
institution.
“Some of the arguments raised in this entire episode
is that universities or tertiary institutions were using the conduct of
such examination to make money,” he said.
“But the truth is,
these institutions are poorly funded. If universities for example are
properly funded, will the vice-chancellors be looking for other means of
making money?
“In the last seven months, university workers have
been receiving incomplete salaries, that is, the disbursement of funds
for payment of salaries has always been inadequate.
“When
situations like this arise, the managements will not be left with any
choice than to look inwards and seek means of meeting such needs.
“And one of such strategies is by conducting such examination.”
Ogunyemi noted that the state universities were worst hit for many of them had yet to receive subvention in the last one year.
“Actually
we in ASUU frown at extortion of any type from students or candidates
but the government too should be alive to its responsibilities by
providing the enabling environment that will aid teaching, leaning and
research.”