According to a document released by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) as of last August, public universities had not processed about 461,000 admissions due to the varsity teachers’ strike which has lasted for more than seven months, thousands of candidates who sat for the 2022 UTME and seeking admission into public varsities are still at home, unsure of their admission status due to the protracted ASUU strike.
“Some institutions confirmed suspending the process because of the ASUU strike; ASUU strike is a factor; many institutions are yet to commence 2021 admissions despite repeated appeals,” the JAMB document read.
Admission seekers, who spoke with SCHOOLS UPDATE correspondents , spoke about their fears on the industrial action, saying their parents are unhappy about the development.
“My parents are worried about the development and me not resuming despite my high score,” Favour admitted.
A University of Benin (UNIBEN) prospect, Faith Edobor Ivie, said her parents share a similar concern. The direct entry candidate said, “the lingering strike has been quite devastating to them”.
She said her inability to sit for the entrance exam at the school has left her “terrified”.
“Most of the time I feel terrified because this is like the first time my quest for knowledge in my academics is been hindered and quite uncertain,” she lamented.
The lady, who is seeking admission to study Mass Communication in one of Nigeria’s leading public varsities, admitted that having been left in limbo since the strike started, the “hope that things will get better depreciates day by day”
Admission seekers are “skilling up” while waiting for admission.
As their hopes of gaining admission hang in uncertainty, some of these UTME candidates are seizing the opportunity to either acquire skills or get temporary jobs.
Favour, an aspiring student of FUTO said she was “into computer training before sitting for UTME [and I am continuing] working under training. I started before the recent ASUU strike”.
Her venture into computer training may have informed her decision in seeking to study Computer Science at the Federal University of Technology (FUTO), Owerri.
But those who sat for the 2022 UTME are not the only ones affected by the long-drawn ASUU strike. In some schools, students admitted to study for the 2021/2022 academic session are yet to resume classes.
According to the SSANU president, this has left schools with a huge pile of admissions to process.
“As you are aware, most universities have not completed their last session,” the SSANU chief added.
“So, there was already an admission that people just registered and had not even started attending lecturers before the strike commenced. About three sets of students are waiting to be admitted to start their courses. The system is saturated.”
When the Federal Government introduced the ‘No work, no pay’ policy– which it later set up a committee to review – one of ASUU’s arguments against the move was that the lecturers have a backlog of work to do once the strike ends.
“For these two sets of students that have been admitted by JAMB, we have to teach them over these periods to ensure that we meet up with the system,” the union’s president, Emmanuel Osodeke argued. “So, we are going to do the backlog of the work we have left behind.”
He maintained that if the government insists on non-payment of the backlog of salaries, “the lectures we should have given [to students] for 2020/2021 and 2021/2022 [sessions], should be allowed to go so we start a new session, 2022/2023, in September”.
Frustrated by ASUU’s insistence, the Federal Government dragged the union to the National Industrial Court. In the September 21 ruling, the court ordered the lecturers to return to the classrooms. While the varsity teachers filed an appeal, the judgement again did not go in their favour.
The Court of Appeal, which granted ASUU “conditional leave to appeal the order of the Industrial Court” mandated the union to resume lectures immediately – that is on October 7th, 2022.
Before then, the Federal Government in what appeared to be a move to break ASUU’s ranks, registered and issued licenses to two factional unions – the National Association of Medical and Dental Academics (NAMDA) and the Congress of Nigerian University Academics (CONUA). The Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, said the unions will function alongside ASUU.
But ASUU dismissed the move, insisting it is not bordered by the Federal Government’s action.
“That does not in any way affect us. We are a disciplined and focused union and we know what we are doing and what we are after,” Osodeke said. “Let them register as many unions as they like. The sky is big enough for birds to fly”.
ASUU also claimed the bodies are illegal, vowing to take legal action against the Federal Government.
While several students had in the past protested against the strike, blocking major roads across the country, and even describing the earlier rulings “as black market judgement’, some are now calling for an out-of-court settlement.
Though hopes are high that the eight-month strike will end soon, the impacts of the industrial action would linger for a long time. Even if ASUU calls off the strike today, the air of uncertainty for admission seekers, the backlog of lectures, and the processing of their admissions will remain big issues.
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