CANDIDATES TO PAY N5,000 FOR POST-UTME SCREENING

 Delta State University (DELSU), Abraka, has announced its readiness to conduct “computer-based aptitude tests” in place of post-Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) - DELSU also said it will charging candidates N5,000 each in addition to N1,000 bank commission - The charges are contrary to Federal Government policy on fees for Post-UTME examination.

-
Contrary to Federal Government’s policy, Delta State University (DELSU), Abraka has announced its readiness to conduct “computer-based aptitude tests” in place of post-Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) for the 2017/2018 academic session. Besides, the university is charging each candidate N5,000, in addition to N1,000 bank commission, bringing the total cost to N6,000 against the maximum N2,500 allowed by the government’s order for the screening. In an official bulletin with reference number S.E. Vol. XXIV No. 36 and dated June 13, the institution directed candidates to visit its admission portal to “generate a virtual pin with N5, 000.

According to it, the payment is for centre-screening and covers honoraria for centre-facilitation, logistics for producing screening materials and security.
But, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that the Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu, had in a statement on June 28, 2016, warned tertiary institutions against charging candidates for post-UTME screening. The warning followed reports that some institutions had ignored the earlier abolition of post-UTME test and devised other means to screen students with certain fees imposed on them. “Any screening which tertiary institutions choose to conduct should only be for the purpose of verification of certificates of the candidates, JAMB scores, and any other physical examination to ensure that such candidates are not cultists. “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,” Adamu said. When contacted, the Registrar of DELSU, Mr Daniel Urhibo, confirmed the authenticity of the school’s bulletin and defended the N5,000 screening charge per candidate.

“It is aptitude test. We are not setting another kind of examination for them the way JAMB sets for them, and it is going to be computer-based,’’ Urhibo said. Asked to differentiate the “computer-based aptitude test’’ from the post-UTME test abolished by the government, he told NAN that the Federal Government did not scrap post-UTME test.
“It is the same agency of the government that said `you can select your students.’ “Twenty-six thousand candidates applied to DELSU; how do you select, may be 5,000 or 6,000? There must be some kind of uniform test to assess them. “Last year, we asked them to submit their secondary school results and we graded them. Do you know that people claiming to have `A’s in their results could not write their names? “Some of them had forged results. We went to the internet and discovered that somebody who claimed to have scored 300 in UTME had just 120. “So, if you use that type you won’t get the best; that is why there is some kind of a little aptitude test for them,’’.