Candidates and Other Protesters Demand Cancellation of 216 UTME

It is not any surprise, despiration, that do or die desire to get admision or have ones child or ward admitted into a university. Much money often go into this with the integrity of education stakeholders pulled through thin ice.

Now, these issues, subject matter, demanding cancellation of 2016 UTME and removal of pro. Dibu Ojerinde, need looked at through broad lenses. First, the participants and frontrunners in the protest, then the board or whoever represents it and now riding in the tsunamis of defence.

Even before that, the grievances leading up to the the warpath, are also not to be dismissed as passed all scrutiny and criticism. 1. The board deliberately lowered scores, 2. Claim of multiple results, 3. Belief in repetition of past result for present exam, 4. Conduct of exams mar by irregularitlies, 5. Sitting for pure science and getting social science in the end, 6. Arbitrary bonus marks to some people, and finally, 7. JAMB is yet to master CBT.

If we have candidates who had returned from the exam centers filled with joy but who now returned from result centers with tears on their eyes and confusion on their minds, reaction is naturally expected. This is especially true when a lot of people are involved. Then, we have sympathizers, including parents and education stakeholders carrying placards.

But I think that tears and anger are not all that need to be considered. I don't think that keeping an open mind in this matter is a bad idea, especially given the grievances. Does anyone think that JAMB nursed some secret benefit that could be achieved by messing up the year's exams? In all honesty, I would say, hardly. Then, who does Dibu hate or love. And who then should he put on score reduction list or the mark bonus?

That is why I said earlier, that the protest participants have to be looked into. Parents, education stakeholders and tutorial associations. Let us remember that face is the priority of stakeholders and union as going through is that of parents and guardians.

On the face of it, private educationists have come to help in building the nation's education. The truth is that it has almost completely destroyed it, and the government chafe at this because actually it had fallen far short of catering for the education needs of its citizens.

What then does this mean for this protest? These education business men and women, really need a great deal of looseness and free hand to do what they like at the exams centers. But commendably, the exam board is building great walls against this. With CBT, it is now almost impossible for questions to be out before the examination day, although this cannot be ruled out completely, somehow.

What does this education business people have to say about parent in the halls with students? Perhaps, nothing, but many fears that they were going to lose face in front of those investing in them. It used to happen, parents inside or around the hall writing the exams with their children or stuffing money in the supervisor's purses. It had really been a good partnership, this parent/stakeholder thing. But JAMB is holding a ground if the government allows it to break it, for all the havoc it had wreck on our education system and our children's development.

What again do these frontrunners in the protest defend about our educational system getting the poorest ratings in the world? Nothing, but their face and a going-to-be failure for what they deserve.

This protest is a fight which I am sure is going to be only spasmodic, except the government with its weak stamina for pressure conceds and did the same thing that led to the coming of NECO, the worse exam board I have ever known.

I think all those involved in the protest should have seen this coming. These children aren't reading books anymore. Or they are reading the social media which are not good enough to make them pass any exam. That is my call. Children aren't reading. Although the game of book sloth has worked perfectly, in the past, with a lot of students bagging distinctions on top of Facebook, twitter, 2go, etc, now things are changing.

Although the possibility of errors on the part of UTME board cannot be ruled out, this is not enough to secure any victory for the protesters, in my judgement. To the largest part, it is preposterous that the exam board has destroyed an exam it has conducted. This has absolutely no rhyme or reason.

I bet on it, you aren't going to believe how unintelligent a lot of people are unless you are one of the few of us that exist. In 1994, I was a GCE candidate at Amedokhian in Uromi, Edo state. God, people are dull. And the few that are not are also not intelligent enough to pass exam on their own. That was my sad observation. Even some who were copying from my work were not even clever enough to know whether I was correct or not because I was not responding to verbal questions from them. Then, they always do serious damage to themselves by cancelling what they already copied from me.

When we were doing mathematics, one impersonator came from Ambrose Ali university for somebody I didn't know. Since mathematics takes time, he suggested that we shared the questions, such that he answered one to twenty-five, while I took the other half. I ended up answering everything for him to copy, during the multiple choice part. But unfortunately, he kicked his own ass out of the show. How? In the theory section, he did the same duplication. But he suddenly lose faith in my ability when he got access to someone else so highly rated in the hall. He cancelled all the ones he copied from me. An undergraduate, I hope you didn't miss that part.

Early the following year, when the results were released, something like this almost happened, protests, singling out some tops in WAEC for gratuitous insult. In our centers alone, we had halls up to hall L. But the results posted on the notice board for us at the office of WAEC in Benin City, I was the only person having mathematics and English together.

Could that have been some coincidence? Hardly, judging from all that I could pull together from the exam hall dramas. Very few people are intelligent, who should even entertain the possibility of failing an exam with little carelessness.

It doesn't take bread and butter to pass exams as some people think. I learned a lot from that GCE experience. WAEC doesn't mess up results. It takes bulk of reading to pass. And like the game of football that calls for meticulous care once on the pitch even after no small work during training, too much of confidence or lack of it, either of them could lead to exam ruin. And anybody who embraces this truth is going to be relaxed on our examination board's ability to steer in the tide and wonder why get in trouble making noise.

Now what is the momentous question racing on every mind? Nobody is going to embrace the real request of Nigerians when it comes to exams and some shaky times there, nobody would want to. But these have to be ended in this country in a way.

My recommendations which I am sure very well represent the real demands of Nigerians in times like this should be easy to recognise: familiar frauds. 1. WAEC, JAMB and other exam bodies should begin with immediate effect to award distinctions to all candidates so far they registered for the exams whether they do well or not. 2. JAMB should travel a little backward in history and system that would allow them to minus CBT that is pain in many butts.

Yes, it has happened before. And parents, education stakeholders and private tutorial association want it happen again. That was what gave birth to NECO. But for the moment, nobody knows what this is going to born. I am sure it will. I say it again, the government does not only have weak stamina for this kind of pressure, it sometimes want to play double face. This is because, many of these educationally destructive private institutions are also owned by people in the government.

We are expecting the worse yet. And it could happen: When license would be given to parents, these stakeholders and other education business moguls to begin setting all certificate exams. Then, education ministers and commissioners would preside over the actual taking, while governors and presidents handle script marking. It might happen because in a lot of places like Lagos, the government cannot educate the people, let's face it. They aren't building schools. So, even more school businesses and more pressure in the future is inevitable. And maybe they would cancel other boards, except NECO. But I hate NECO. That one brought the ugly competition that led to the lowering of Nigeria's education standards.

For JAMB, before they kick out your ass, please, CBT is good. I know you have nothing to gain in student's failure. You are only being maligned.

To the protesters, mistake is inevitable. But this just don't have to be, taking the way you described it. It is all too easy, too big not where there is law and punishment with the mastermind if you say so, even having nothing to gain from your failure. No, the students are not intelligent enough and they are only being exposed by this CBTs. This is true if we keep an open mind. In all humility, I passed all the exams I ever sat for and I know what it means. But the students I see today aren't what we were.  They like everything but discomfort.

It would have been a little humbling for these protesters to strike a few notes of modesty. I do not shy away from the truth. Many people are dull.  The others that are really thought to be intelligent are actually average, without the deep understanding to get fully absorbed in knowledge or the discipline to read the bulk passing exam needs.

Parents and guardiance all got it wrong with these thieving stakeholders who are only interested in money and the business of it. Children don't need special centers or schools to pass exams. They don't need magicians to teach them. A teacher is the student's guide, a tutor leading him through his studies. It is up to the student to expound on what is learned or ask questions. It should be learned that CBT is saying no writing of exams before the sitting. No smuggling of sheets into the bush. And every certificate is going to worth its weight in gold.

This is what I think these protesters should have been busy educating the aggrieved students on: buy texbookks instead of another new phone. Otherwise it is all changing. I don't have any hides. I wish this Computer Based be introduced into WAEC and other certificate exams. I also wish the government does not take sides with sympathy. Then people will be forced to read. If not, more of these ugly things hidden underneath the clothe will hit the open.

Opinion Nigeria: Bread Seller Turned a Model

Opinion Nigeria: Bread Seller Turned a Model: This is getting over laboured. It is a good thing though. Now, everybody wants to become a bread seller to bag some wins. Though the dollar ...

Bread Seller Turned a Model

This is getting over laboured. It is a good thing though. Now, everybody wants to become a bread seller to bag some wins. Though the dollar palava affected the price of bread, it is only partly. The high demand for bread is the major factor responsible for the big rise in price of bread in current times. Fathers and mothers "I won't let my children suffer what I  suffered," are chasing their children now to begin hocking bread on the streets because of Olajumoke Orisaguna so that T Y Bello would notice them.

T Y Bello is not duplicitous. I think there is only one. This thing doesn't happen frequently, probably once in ten or even twenty years. But why? Is T Y the richest Nigeria? Only a very few will remember to ask this. This has to do with surprise. We are often surprised especially when wat is unusual appears on newspapers, television or heard on the radio. Why, CNN has even interviewed Olajumoke.

But what is unusual? This is just one person, one winner. What about the many, who is talking about them - many celebrities that are turning bread sellers in this country?

This is true, in this country, the riches of some people are touching the heaven. But they are opposite of T Y Bello, even crippling celebrities and turning them bread sellers to put it mildly. Unlike Bello who has turned Olujumoke to a god, these ones take advantage of the vulnerability of the lowly and stretch them to shreds until they have no further use for them.

The news media for what they are, there has not been a single story with them highlighting Bello's virtuous message to our society of mesm. One Olajumoke is graphically too small and is being blown out of proportion. Bello should be emulated for generosity and selflessness.

And to you Olajumoke Orisaguna for what you make hard work to be, true, at any rate, there is dignity in labour.