Funmi Balogun nervously approached her Unified Tertiary Matriculation (UTME) centre at Oshodi, Lagos and wondered how it was all going to play out given 2017 complaints about internet speed, monitoring of the exams, punctuality and general quality of facilities at various centres.
She remembered that 2017 was the first time the Joint Admissions and Matriculations Board (JAMB) deployed the Computer Based Test (CBT) and there were many complaints from candidates in terms infrastructure that is, functional computers, internet speed and time management on the part of officials.
To her greatest surprise the biggest hitch was only about time management. The exams started two hours late at her centre. Apart from that, the computers worked well, although one candidate at her centre complained about a dysfunctional computer, which was replaced, there were no technical hitches.
Reports show that the JAMB’s UTME examination took place smoothly in Ogun State and was well monitored by Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), without any hitches recorded.
Some candidates who sat for the second and third sessions of UTME, in Abuja, commended the board for a hitch free examination while some complained about the challenges of biometric machines not accepting the fingers prints of the candidates.
This relative success masks seething volcano in Nigeria’s tertiary education space. As at February 07, 2018, JAMB stated that over 1.4 million candidates had registered for the 2018 UTME across the country.
Despite JAMB’s effort to make the e-registration process smooth, available data show that in the event that these candidates registered successfully, sat for the exams and qualified for admission, they were not all going to be admitted into tertiary institutions in Nigeria due to limited carrying capacity.
The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on February 20, 2017, released data on the JAMB, for 2010 – 2016, which showed rise in candidates’ application tide and ebb in the carrying capacity of Nigeria’s tertiary institutions.
In 2015, Dibu Ojerinde, former registrar of the JAMB, said, “The carrying capacity that we have now all over the country including universities, polytechnics, colleges of education, among others, is less than 800,000”; and same year, 1.47 million candidates sat for the examination.
Additionally, the JAMB data showed that a total of 11.7 million applications were received between 2010 and 2016, while a total of 2.7 million students were admitted across the 36 states and the FCT between 2010 and 2015. This represents a 23 percent admission to application ratio, which means about 77 percent of those who applied were not admitted.
“There are two key reasons why candidates might not be admitted. The first is the non-qualification of candidates and the second is the carrying capacity of tertiary institutions in the Nigeria,” says Solomon Adebola, who is the director at Babcock Centre for Executive Development and dean, Babcock Business School, Ilishan-Remo, Ogun State.
Adebola contends that the solution to the first problem is improvement in teaching and learning methods at level of basic education. However, on carrying capacity there is more to it than the physical carrying capacity; various professional bodies wade into the mix to guarantee that graduates are employed without the labour market being oversaturated.
To improve access to tertiary institutions in general and universities in particular, Peter Okebukola, former executive secretary at the National Universities Commission (NUC), captures the views of some experts surveyed who suggest an expansion of carrying capacity.
“One component is to embark on massive upgrading of physical facilities in existing universities to take in at least additional 1,000 students per year. This will involve more classrooms, hostels, laboratories, workshops, library and offices,” he states.
Staff recruitment should be undertaken in the quantity and quality to match the annual growth in student enrolment. Hence, with successful scaling of NUC due diligence on the expanded facilities and increased human resources, carrying capacity is increased to 1000.
The university can, thereafter, proceed to enrol additional 1,000 students during the next admission season. In 10 years, a typical university would have added about 10,000 students to its baseline stock.
“In terms of cost per university, this option translates to an annual average of N1.6 billion for building, equipment and staffing. In 10 years, each university will require at least N10.6 billion for the expansion project,” Okebukola says.
STEPHEN ONYEKWELU
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