EditorialTHEWILL EDITORIAL: JAMB: UTME Candidates and Agony of NIN Procurement

THEWILL EDITORIAL: JAMB: UTME Candidates and Agony of NIN Procurement

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The Joint Admissions And Matriculation Board (JAMB) has insisted on the use of National Identity Number (NIN) for the registration of the 2021 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME). The policy was introduced last year (2020) but had to be suspended when JAMB realised it could not be achieved. This followed the confusion and chaos the terribly short notice created at the NIN registration centres across the country.

Before now, JAMB had assured it would interface with the Ministry of Communication and Digital Economy, National Communication Commission, and the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) to ensure a smooth administration of the process. But the exercise suffered some “technical hitches” which affected the scheduled take-off date – April 8, for the 2021 registration. Expectedly, the incident has reinforced the fears about NIN as a project whose inefficiency is not in short supply. But JAMB is not relenting.

Since 2016 JAMB, under the leadership of Professor Oloyede, has been the cynosure of excellence among Nigeria’s government parastatals. The frontal attack on examination malpractice, bazaar of indiscipline and systemic corruption, has helped in restoring confidence in the integrity of JAMB’s examinations. It can therefore be understood that the push for NIN as a requirement for UTME registration aims to sustain what stakeholders now refer to as ‘Oloyede revolution’ in the 43-year-old establishment.

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According to the Registrar, Professor Ishaq Oloyede, JAMB insists on NIN for the UTME registration for security reasons and to checkmate examination irregularities. We understand this explanation and appreciate the move. We also commend the leadership of JAMB for its efforts to sanitize our educational system which has become the nadir in the nation’s human capital development.

But we consider the timing most inauspicious. We are also worried that JAMB does not seem to appreciate the inconveniences of COVID-19 which has overshadowed most things in importance and the attendant disruption to the academic calendar. Above all, the obvious unpreparedness of government in the entire NIN registration exercise has exposed Nigeria’s debilitating inefficiency to the international community. This cannot be glossed over.

We therefore consider it counter-productive to foist on the distraught UTME candidates the trauma of obtaining NIN in a process that showcases chaos and confusion as a national identity. Moreover, these are students who, like their counterparts across the globe, are struggling to wriggle out of the disabling COVID-19 effects.

The candidates are in a hurry to make up for the lost months that witnessed calamities of the pandemic. They are equally traumatized by the agony of arriving at NIN registration centres in the wee hours of a day for an exercise that would eventually take several days to complete.

Additionally, there are reports of extortion by officials of NIN registration centres who charge between N3,000 and N5,000 for the exercise. The candidates also lament over poor connectivity and other network hitches that create prolonged downtime. The situation is worse in the countryside with overcrowded facilities that show no concern about the breach of COVID-19 protocols.

JAMB has said that candidates should use SIM that has not been used for previous UTME registration. This suggests that most candidates would be required to obtain new SIM. But SIM registration has been suspended nationwide and this creates additional uncertainty for the exercise.

At a recent media briefing in Abuja, Prof Oloyede was quoted as saying, “Not all the candidates are without SIM; 80 percent of the candidates already have their number, we are talking of the 20 percent and if we are fortunate enough to secure the waiver of the minister through the NCC, we will go ahead to make sure there is full compliance to the conditionality because it is in our interest as a nation that those things that are put in place should be allowed to protect all of us.”

This statement does not offer the desired encouragement. In a culture of inefficiency and corruption, we have strong reasons to entertain fears that some candidates are not unlikely to experience SIM hitches that would not be promptly resolved. Even with the much-touted security-tight SIM registration, unscrupulous elements have penetrated the system.

We therefore advocate that the candidates be allowed to settle down, read their books, undertake extramural classes and attend intensive classes in their schools or coaching centres. This is to ensure adequate preparations for the highly competitive UTME exercise that is becoming almost malpractice-free.

We also urge JAMB to suspend the NIN requirement for the next two years.

During this time, NIN registration should be adequately decentralized. Registration centres should be located in schools or within their neighbourhoods for students to obtain their NIN and have it linked to their SIM. By then, the system would have become more efficient and the existing poor infrastructure and inadequate hands addressed.

JAMB should concentrate in consolidating the gains of the ‘Oloyede revolution’ before jumping to NIN as an additional requirement for UTME registration. That way, both JAMB and the candidates will experience peace.

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