Varsity admission crisis worse than Boko Haram –Don

From ABDULGAFAR ALABELEWE, Kaduna
Third Republic Senator and Professor of
Management, David Iornem has described the
university admission crisis in Nigeria as a
disaster worse than Boko Haram killings.
He also said the Joint Admission and Matriculation
Board (JAMB) was designed not to set qualification
for university entrance, but to edge out candidates
due to lack of capacity of Nigerian universities to
accommodate Nigerians aspiring to further their
education.
Prof. Iornem who stated this while addressing a press
conference in Kaduna yesterday, said, there was
urgent need for a practical vision from the Federal
Ministry of Education and the National University
Commision (NUC).
While noting that the press briefing was called to
launch his campaign for introduction of university
colleges, as part of his gift to Nigeria on his 64th
birthday, the professor lamented that, out of over 1.7
million school leavers jostling for admission into
tertiary institutions in Nigeria, only 500,000 would
succeed, leaving a massive majority of 1.2 million
stranded.
He said: “Nigeria does not need to re-invent the
wheel in its efforts to confront what he described as a
national crisis in the nation’s higher education sector.
“All we need to do is to copy and adapt what Ghana is
doing. The Ghana model has dramatically expanded
the carrying capacity of its universities and it is
working,” he said.
Senator Iornem explained that United Kingdom was
at a point faced with similar challenge, but solved the
problem by creating opportunity for the
establishment of small university colleges offering
degree programmes in affiliation with established
universities.
According to him, “when Ghana was faced with the
same problem, they went to the UK and studied their
system of small university colleges set up by
independent entrepreneurs under the supervision of
universities to which they are affiliated.
“Using the UK model, Ghana is now helping to absorb
Nigerian students who cannot find admission in
Nigerian universities. As I speak, close to 200,000
Nigerian students are in Ghana, studying at these
university colleges,” he said.
Professor Iornem noted that, in the past, there was no
need for JAMB to select people to enter universities
and other institutions of higher learning.
..........SUN