Government threatens to revoke licences of private varsities over post-UTME

​VCs of institutions risk sack

Private universities that flout the Federal

Government’s proscription of the controversial written

post-Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (post-

UTME), and covertly conduct the exercise, risk

sanctions. They could have their operational licences

revoked by the Federal Government.

Government also said it would sanction any of its

institutions that conduct written post-UTME, and sack

their vice chancellors of such schools.Deputy Director,

Press at the Federal Ministry of Education, Mr. Bem

Goong, said the warning has become necessary as

some institutions were still bent on going ahead with

the written test, which the government has since

abolished.

In an interview with The Guardian, Goong alleged that

Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti (ABUAD) was

stopped from carrying out a post-JAMB examination

over the weekend in the Garki area of the Federal

Capital Territory.
According to the Goong, “One of the parents alerted

me about what they were trying to do, and I in turn

contacted the permanent secretary outright, who

mandated me to convey the development to the

National Universities Commission (NUC), and the

executive secretary of the commission was duly

briefed.

“On learning of this development, we promptly reacted

and the exercise was stopped at that centre. By the

time we got there, they had actually gone in and had

even started the examination. So, we had to stop them

and also informed them that if they choose to go

ahead, they would face serious sanctions from the

NUC. We, however, do not know whether they went

ahead in other centres around the country, where the

exercise was meant to take place.”

The director of press warned institutions against

operating at variance with Federal Government’s

directive, as that would not be tolerated.For federal

universities, there are also sanctions, because the vice

chancellors are public servants, and it could be worse

for them because they would be seriously dealt with,

and could even be sacked. So, it is very important that

they comply with government’s directives as it

concerns scrapping of written post-UTME.

Spokesperson of ABUAD, Tunde Olofintila, however,

said the school did not organise post-UTME

examination, which has been proscribed by the Federal

Government.“For the avoidance of doubt, ABUAD had a

screening exercise for intending students at

Government Secondary School, Garki, Abuja. That

event took place smoothly and it was not a post-

UTME, since the Federal Government had outlawed it.

All we did was screening of the intending students and

everything went on smoothly without any issue since

there was police presence,” Olofintila explained.

The Federal Government in June put an end to written

post-UTME. Even though key players in the sector

kicked, claiming that it would compromise standards,

government insisted that the days of written post-

UTME were over for good.