…Supports Adamu On Virtual Learning And Laments Failure Of “One Laptop per Child Initiative”.
- Mrs Obaji*
Commenting on the role played by her group, ‘High Powered Opinion Leaders’ in the success of the 2020 UTME, Mrs. Obaji said the Group which she chaired contributed immensely to the overall success of the examination as it offered numerous insights to achieve a seamless examination outcome and helping to checkmate incidence of examination malpractice among other measures.
A former Minister of Education, Mrs. Chinwe Nora Obaji, has joined other Nigerians to pass encomiums on the Registrar, Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), for the successful conclusion of the just-concluded 2020 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) as well as the great changes he had wrought in the operational processes of the Board.
The Former Minister described the Registrar, Prof. Is-haq Oloyede, as “a gift to the nation” and called on well-meaning Nigerians to support the indefatigable transformer in his bid to turn around the fortunes of JAMB and the educational sector as a whole.
- Prof Oloyede*
Mrs. Obaji gave this assessment in a telephone interview with JAMBulletin on Friday, 9th April, 2020. According to the former Minister, the 2020 UTME witnessed tremendous improvements when compared to previous ones.
She, however, attributed the successes recorded to the series of innovations put in place by the Board such as the conclusion of the exercise within the space of one week devoid of any serious technical hitches, thorough supervision, the negligible cases of examination infractions, prompt release of results as well as the optimal use of technology, among others.
Mrs. Obaji said, “I’m trying to be modest, but I must say that Prof.Oloyede is a gift to Nigeria and we should all continue to support him so that he will continue to record more success stories. I also commend his avowed determination to reduce incidence of examination malpractice to the barest minimum through bringing perpetrators to book. Furthermore, the Board, under the administration of the Registrar has remitted humongous amount of money running into billions of naira into the Federal coffers. Similarly, the Registrar spearheaded the donations of ventilators and other medical interventions to some hospitals including the hospital in the Board’s host community to complement the fight against COVID-19 pandemic as part of its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Other achievements of the Registrar is the automation of admissions into the nation’s tertiary institutions through the Central Admissions Processing System(CAPS), a platform that had brought sanity, credibility, fairness and transparency in the admission process. It’s also significant that every candidate now knows that there is no shortcut to success, as such, the era of “JAMB gave me this score” is over, you get what you deserved.”
In a similar vein, Mrs. Obaji lent her voice to the call made by the Hon. Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu, on the need to embrace virtual learning in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic that necessitated the closing down of the nation’s institutions at all levels.
According to Mrs. Obaji, “Nigeria has no choice other than to embrace e-learning as it is done in other climes. The challenges the country is experiencing in her bid to render quality education to her teeming youth population would have been overcome if the ‘One Laptop Per Child Initiative’ was not jettisoned midway. This wonderful initiative was conceived in 2005 when I held sway as the Minister of Education.” She also noted that similar gestures were abandoned citing the ‘School Feeding Initiative’ which she launched as a Minister in 2005 at Kuje, a suburb of the Federal Capita l Territory.
She, however, commended the President Buhari-led administration for reviving the laudable initiative. The former Minister charged all stakeholders to give due attention to the needs of education as the Federal Government could not do it alone. Mrs. Obaji declared that all hands must be on deck to turn around the fortunes of the sector. She opined that Nigeria should adopt the zeal and vigour at which she contained the Ebola virus and the current efforts aimed at containing the COVID-19 pandemic to tackle the various challenges bedeviling the educational sector in the country.
In her words, “If we had sustained the ‘One Laptop Per Child Initiative’, by now virtual learning would have been integrated into the curriculum and students and teachers would have been adequately grounded in e-learning by now.” “The initiative entailed deploying laptops to all JSS 1 students across the country. At that time, those laptops were being offered to us at the rate of $100 each and, at the exchange rate of N120 to one dollar, each laptop would be procured at the rate of N12,000.”
On the institution of the controversial Post-UTME, the former Minister who had taught for over two decades in tertiary institutions across the country, said its introduction was in line with relevant provisions of the instruments that set up the various tertiary institutions which empowers their Senates and Councils to determine their mode of selecting candidates in conjunction with JAMB with a view to selecting suitably-qualified candidates for admission.
In addition, she stated that the more hurdles a candidate crosses, the better to guarantee the quality of intakes who would spearhead the nation’s march to greatness. She said that the continued existence of Post-UTME would be determined by the continued exhibition of excellence as is being currently demonstrated by JAMB. She commended JAMB for addressing some of the challenges that led to the introduction of Post- UTME in the first instance adding that many of these had been successfully addressed by the Board.
Commenting on the role played by her group, ‘High Powered Opinion Leaders’ in the success of the 2020 UTME, Mrs. Obaji said the Group which she chaired contributed immensely to the overall success of the examination as it offered numerous insights to achieve a seamless examination outcome and helping to checkmate incidence of examination malpractice among other measures.
The former Minister recalled how the Group had, in the just-concluded 2020 UTME, moved swiftly to prevent hiccups in the conduct of the examination as one of the Professional Test Centres, unknown to the Board, had already been marked for demolition by the authorities. She stated, however, that with the information made available to the Board, it swiftly provided alternative arrangements. She disclosed that this, and many others, were some of the inputs of the Group to the success recorded.
- Culled from JAMBulletin April 13, 2020