YOU CAN GET UNIVERSITY EDUCATION

Do you know that over 1 million eligible secondary or high school leavers sit for the University Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) examinations annually for entry into universities in Nigeria alone? Statistics show that less than 30 per cent of this number eventually gain admission to read various courses in the few available universities. What then happens to the remaining 70 per cent of candidates who for each successive year, fail to secure admission into the universities? Some, of course, due to their resilience, decide to re-sit the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Examination the following year, and almost invariably probably end up not being admitted, while others settle for the polytechnic, nursing or computer data processing education. Yet a greater number of these candidates eventually get frustrated and give up on their pursuit of higher education and thus, end up enrolling as apprentices in various trades to train as carpenters, seamstresses, mechanics, electricians, motor drivers, etc. Others become shop attendants, retail traders, hair dressers, retailers of GSM recharge cards, and so on.

While I concede the argument that some of the candidates are not university materials, a good number of them really are, and will certainly do very well if given the opportunity to get into the university to study courses of their choice. The truth is that there is limited number of universities in the country to absorb the large number of youths graduating from the high school every year, who are seeking university education. Even the existing universities lack the capacity and adequate facilities in terms of lecture halls, libraries, adequate number of academic staff to match the teacher/student ratio as prescribed by the National Universities Commission, hostel accommodation, among others.

We believe that the future and prospects of academically inclined candidates should not be jeopardized under the above enumerated institutional problems. There is, however, alternative to attaining the same goal and that is online university education programme.