Candidate writing the UTME
THE 2019 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) ended yesterday with some of the 1.8 million candidates who are also writing the 2019 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) forced to miss their Trade/Entrepreneurship Subject papers.
The WASSCE for School Candidates began April 8 with Catering Craft Practice, Marketing and Salesmanship – all entrepreneurship subjects which are compulsory for all SS3 pupils writing the examination. The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) scheduled all the 24 trade/entrepreneurial subjects being offered in the curriculum to be written from April 8 to April 25.
However, a shift in the date of the 2019 utme by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) because of the rescheduled elections resulted in a clash in both examinations.
The six-day UTME held in 700 Computer-Based Test (CBT) centres nationwide from April 11-13, and 15-17, fell within the WASSCE timetable.
Before the examination, WAEC Nigeria and JAMB had pledged that there would be no clash. WAEC Nigeria’s Head, Public Affairs, Mr. Demianus Ojijeogu told The Nation at the examining body’s headquarters in Yaba, Lagos, that the Council would address the clash “internally and administratively.” He said candidates would not sacrifice one examination for the other.
“I assure you that no candidate would miss their exams. We are working on it. The JAMB Registrar is in touch with the WAEC Head of National Office (HNO) and we will sort it out internally,” he said.
The JAMB Public Relations Officer, Dr Fabian Benjamin, also told The Nation on phone that the examining body had been told by WAEC that there would be no clash.
“The registrar has reached out to the HNO and he was assured that there would be no clash,” he said.
However, findings by The Nation proved otherwise. Schools said they were not told about a change in the timetable to address the clash.
Mr. Oluwasegun Owoeye of Ilupeju Senior Grammar School, Oshodi, lamented that WAEC did not communicate any changes to the school. Principal of Mind Builders High School, Ikeja, also said the school did not hear from WAEC.
Fortunately for them, pupils of both schools were not affected by the clash.
Owoeye said the school’s chosen entrepreneurship subject was done before the UTME began.
“The students here do Office Practice and that has been done before UTME started. WAEC did not change the timetable and these subjects that are clashing with the UTME are offered by the minority,” he said.
On his part, Fasuyi said Mind Builders pupils offer Data Processing, Marketing and Garment Making.
“Luckily for us, our students were not affected. They did Marketing on April 8; Garment Making is coming up tomorrow, while Data Processing will be written next Tuesday. All our students have already written their UTME. We also do Catering Craft Practice but we did not have any student this year,” he said.
However, many other candidates were not so lucky. They were forced to make a difficult choice about choosing what examination to take. Many opted to take the UTME.
Mr Adebayo Olagunju, a parent in Owo, Ondo State, was upset that his daughter missed her Animal Husbandry paper last Thursday when she was also scheduled to write the UTME. By the time she rushed back to her school after the UTME, the Animal Husbandry was long over.
“My thinking is that they were not fair to the students. It showed duplicity in their leadership. What we learnt was that no student would be made to suffer.
“We are saying we are promoting agricultural studies so students would embrace agriculture but this is happening,” he lamented.
Another parent, whose daughter attends Providence High School in Lagos and also missed the Animal Husbandry paper, hoped the government would resolve the problem such that the candidates would not suffer.
“We are waiting to see how government will resolve this such that the students will not suffer for it. This is the first implementation of the new curriculum involving Trade Subjects and we were told they are compulsory. I know a parent who insisted his child take the WASSCE instead of the UTME,” said the Lagos-based parent.
Mrs Foluke Ajayi of Reagan Memorial Baptist Girls Secondary School, Yaba, said the school had to get creative to enable its students write both examinations last Thursday.
“The students wrote the WAEC paper first-Animal Husbandry because we knew that the UTME would not start on time. From there, ‘Gokada’ had to be used to transport the students quickly to their UTME centres,” she said.
Explaining the subject combination for senior secondary school pupils, Fasuyi said pupils are required to study English, Mathematics, Civic Education and one Trade subject as compulsory subjects which they must offer for the Senior School Certificate Examination (SSCE). The other four or five subjects they select is based on the specific requirements of the courses they choose to study at tertiary level.
“Government is making it compulsory that a child must offer a trade subject,” he said.
Whether passing the Trade Subject would have any bearing on admissions is a different matter.
Owoeye does not think they can affect a student’s admission chances.
“Although these trade subjects are compulsory in our curriculum, they are not required in the subject combination for admission. What one needs is Maths, English and your core subjects,” he said.
Mrs Ajayi added that pupils who boycotted the WASSCE for UTME may have done so because the subjects that clashed with the UTME would not influence their university admission.
“These trade subjects are not requirements for admission although they are compulsory subjects by the ministry of education. So students are boycotting these examinations for UTME”
However, a WAEC Supervisor for Comprehensive Senior School, Alapere, Ketu, disagreed.
“To gain admission, you need at least one trade subject and I think one language subject too. These examinations are clashing and we have students that are affected by it here. They had to forego WAEC examinations for the UTME, not realising that it will affect them as they have chosen the ‘awaiting result’ option while now missing the exams,” he said.
Indeed, not doing a Trade Subject may not reduce admission chances of candidates seeking to attend the universities as the subjects are not listed among compulsory UTME O Level subjects required for admission.
The 2019 UTME e-brochure of JAMB showed that universities demand O Level subjects relevant to specific programmes – stipulating the science, social sciences and humanities subjects that they accept. Many did not stipulate specific O Level Trade Subjects.
However, the polytechnics listsome of the Trade subjects for admission. For example, a candidateseeking to study Accountancy or Banking and Finance could include Office Practice as one of his O Level subjects.
Some other courses that require trade subjects in the polytechnic include: Agricultural Engineering Technology (Metal Work, AutoMechanics); Building Technology (Metal Work, Woodwork); and Chemical Engineering Technology (Auto Mechanics, Metal Work
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