2013 UTME: Only 520,000 will get admission – FG Minister of Education, Professor Ruqayyatu Rufa’i, yesterday said only 520,000, of the 1,735,720, candidates who sat for this year’s Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) are likely to gain admission into tertiary institutions in the country. This is because the entire universities in the country can only accommodate 520,000, candidates, meaning that the remaining 1.2million candidates may have to shelve their desire for higher education till further notice. “We have over 1.7million candidates that have registered to go into our tertiary institutions including our universities and the space that we have is barely 520,000 for federal, and state tertiary institutions including Polytechnics, Colleges of Education and private universities”, the minister said. Prof. Rufai made this disclosure while monitoring the examination in some centres in Abuja. She explained that about 700,000 candidates may not have any university to absorb them if at of the day one million candidates passed the matriculation examination since government could not create access without giving recourse to quality. She said as part of the determination of the Federal Government to create access to university education 12 new universities had been established. “This is a major concern that we have and that is why we are also calling for opening of access even though we have to create access that would be commensurate with the quality. We have 1.7million candidates that are sitting for today’s examination and that of May for the computer based test. “Out of 1.7million candidates, the space that we have in the entire nation is 520,000. So, assuming we have 1.7million that have sat for the examination and we have only 520,000. What is this figure compared to the 1.2million? Assuming only 700,000 or 1million pass the exam which is about 50 per cent, what are we going to do with the rest? She said, “We will not expand our carrying capacity simply to accommodate these students without the commensurate expansion of our facilities. Facilities as at today are basically for 520,000 students and that is why we are calling for improvement in access. We are calling for more public private partnership”.
Posted on: Sat, 08 Jun 2013 10:57:47 +0000
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