The Federal Government has formally banned the conduct the Post-Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).
Minister of Education, Adamu Admu, in a statement issued through Ben Goong, the Deputy Director of Press and Public Relations in the ministry, said the ban was with immediate effect.
Consequently, all higher institutions have been directed to comply with the directive.
Adamu noted that parents spend fortunes on transportation and sundry costs just for their wards to gain admission into universities.
“The ban is with immediate effect, and under no circumstance should any institution violate the directive.
The Minister was quoted as saying, “As far as I am concerned, if the nation has confidence in what JAMB is doing, the universities should not be holding another examination.
“If the universities have any complain against JAMB, let them bring it and then we address it.
“But if JAMB is qualified enough to conduct tests and they have conducted test, then there will be no need to conduct another test for students to gain admission.
“The responsibility for admission into public tertiary institutions lies solely with the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) and under no circumstance whatsoever, should anybody or institution take over that responsibility by proxy.
“For the avoidance of doubt, any educational institution after secondary education is regarded as a tertiary institution.
“Therefore, all tertiary institutions, Polytechnics, Colleges of Education, Universities or by whatever name it is called after secondary education, must be subjected to admission through the JAMB.
“Those who have already advertised for the conduct of the Post-UTME under any guise should stop the exercise immediately as any university caught conducting Post-UTME will face appropriate sanctions.
“If any tertiary Institution has already conducted Post-UTME, such an exercise stands annulled and money taken from such candidates must be refunded immediately.”
The statement said further that the candidates could be screened for final admission, adding that “After this, the candidates are qualified for matriculation.
“Such screening should be at no cost to the parents or students and should be done upon resumption, in order to avoid unnecessary travels in search of admission.”
