Yahaya Idris, Abuja.
Following mass failure recorded in the just concluded 2021 Unified Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) examination, the entire leadership of the National Association Of Universities Students (NAUS) has joined million of Nigerian Students home and abroad to expressed disappointment over the sad incidents, calling for urgent reversal to avoid mass students protest in the country.
NAUS at a press conference on Wednesday In Abuja, the Nation capital condemned it in a strong term the mass failure recorded in the recent JAMB examination.
“As an association, we do not feel comfortable with this year conduct of the Joint Admission Matriculation Board Examination. The conduct of the examination from the onset is a pointer to the fact that it was meant to be a failure”.
The association described the incidents as unfortunate, uncalled for and international embarrassment that need to be look into avoid institutional failure in the system.
“The examination body had to mandate admission-seekers to obtain their National Identity Number (NIN) before they could register for the examination despite the widespread of covid-19 pandemic, thereby making them go through traumatic moments which include but not limited to the restriction on the use of a phone number and the inhuman conducts of JAMB officials at the test centres”.
The statement further noted that the widespread technical hitches, delay in process, electricity outages and gross incompetence of the authority saddle with responsibility among other marred the exercise to the extent that those scheduled to write their examination in the morning could not do so until late in the afternoon”.
NAUS in a statement released on Wednesday shortly after it press conference by Abioye Sanjo Oluwagbenga, NAUS National Director of Contact and Mobilization says it is not surprising to read that there was mass failure, because, such is meant to occur considering the poor conduct of the exercise which would have ordinarily demoralised youths that have prepared days and nights for the exercise. JAMB is laughing all the way to the bank without considering the negative effects the stress has on the candidates that sat for the examination.”
“We condemn this year’s conduct of the exercise and seek for a reversal of the exercise to suit 21st century”.
The NAUS body also seek for reversal into the ugly incidents and demand for apology by the JAMB unfailingly before it shut down their head offices across the country including that of the FCT, Abuja, federal capital territory.
An injury to one, is an Injury to all…
Dare to Struggle, Dare to Win.
In a similar vein, Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has debunked news of mass failure in the ongoing 2021 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) across the country, saying this year’s performance is not significantly different from those of previous years.
The board said it is a fluke and a campaign by those whose source of illicit income had been blocked.
The Head, Public Affairs and Protocol of JAMB Dr. Fabian Benjamin said: “The board ordinarily would not have reacted to the half-truth being peddled by some disgruntled candidates, who were ill-prepared for the examination and who, true to all expectations, performed below the expectations of their guardians, that the Board had based its questions on the wrong syllabus.”
“It is our belief that based on facts on the ground, every right-thinking Nigerian would question the 6,944,368 figure on which the 14% “pass” is based. For instance, in the 2021 UTME, 1, 415,501 registered for both UTME/DE. Out of this figure, 1,340,003 candidates registered for UTME and 75, 498 registered for DE,” he said.
