Admission With Justice

I'm writing this as a concerned citizen of the federal republic of Nigeria. We universities aspiring students have been thrown and presently in a state of tempest and confusion even though the sea is calm and we still have our paddles. Irony? Hardwork and honesty has become a surrogate of malpractice instead of being positioned as the primary hallmark of judging the abilities of aspiring students into tertiary institutions.

So painful our dreams are being shortlived every blessed year with the unfavourable criteria being use as the admission points. I still wonder why individual students of differs talents and abilities are being judge base on how they perform in their SSCE or UME. It is not the least encouraging when a university of global standard like the prestigious University of Ibadan still haven't left the mediaeval stage of using the WAEC/NECO grade point system despite the odds and faults in conducting those exams.

Furthermore, I wonder why members of senate in our higher institutions and education policy makers behave like they were never like us? Why do they act as though they were never in our shoes? Why is it that their criteria changes annualy and it is never in favour of the masses.

Little wonder why thousands of first year students are being expelled yearly because of their poor academic performance owning to the fact that they entered using leaven O'level results!

Little wonder our tertiary institutions are producing educationists and not inventors or innovators! Little wonder our institutions produces bookworms and not bookbreeders! Little wonder they produce employees and not employers! Little wonder they produce job seekers and not job makers!

Not long ago, the universiity of Ibadan conducted an oral interview for her aspirants and the story of a certain girl who applied into the department of economics ensued. She was invited for the interactive section because of her excellent performance in her O'level and UTME but I think we all know what later end her story. Taking a careful thought on the illustration above, suppose UI has make use of the grade point system, she might luckily escape the process even if peradventure she got expelled.

I remember my secondary school propietor raining curses on any teacher that make attempt to assist us in our exams, so we were all determined to face our waterloo individually.

We thank God we had our 'Bs' and 'Cs' through hardwork and prayer. Now, our grades are being intimidated by students with A's who had their result without even sitting for the exams. I'm not against the fact that there are people who are brilliant and gifted enough to write exams and have a combination of As or Bs, but a larger fraction of people with this type of result got it using some illegal means, so, aspiring students should be interviewed.

To brace that up, when a job seeker applies for an employment, and he was lucky to have his application received, the next thing the employer do is to call such a person for an interview. Why? This allow the two parties to know each other more. Moreover, it gives the employer an oppurtunity to know the type of person he is to employ, whether the applicant is a first class holder or not, the interview will shed light on his personality. Whether he or she can defend his/her result or not, the interview will decide.

Had it been employers use grades for employment, then many leaven first class certificate would have grown like weeds and many business firms and companies would have folded up. The same thing is applicable for higher institutions, once the grade point is encouraged, more 'miracle centers' would open for writing the SSCE exam then there would be admission injustice.

In conclusion, let me tell you first that I'm not in the position to provide a solution to this menace that has delayed many talented individuals to getting admission into higher institutions because regarding 'school education' I'm an O'level certified student, but I implore schools senates to employ the use of interactive screening to know what we, their aspirants are upto, know us better in oral interview, be friendly with us, don't scare us off with your goggles and unsmiling faces, let us share with you our dreams and aspirations. The grade point system is leaving us suicidal, our parents are loosing hope in us, three four five years at home isn't ok at all.

I'm sure you know there are other reasons apart from brilliancy that could result into exam failure. Written exam is not the only means to check one's ability. Michael Faraday might not have had the oppurtunity to be Davy's lab assistant and a great inventor if Davy had tested him with written exams because he was not learned.

The difference between forty nine and fifty is one and getting one or missing one couldn't have determined one is brilliant or not. So, invest time in listening to us, talk to us, get to know us and you will be admitting human beings not people. PEACE.