Of JAMB, Poor Results And Hijabophobia -By Muhammad Auwal Ibrahim

As examiners will say, the examination rule didn’t state that all must pass. Some will fail. Some will pass. However, the release of the recently concluded Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) results have generated a lot of debates online. The streets of social media were flooded with various reactions from this angle of Nigeria. From various people; elders and youth; teachers and students. This was as a result of the poor results of some candidates. I was surprised with the way many of them were not expecting the said results. Though, according to them, the failure is much. However, it should be expected. I later discovered that there are some candidates that scored good marks.

I have read various comments from people online, mostly elderly or academics. Many of them pointed the same angles with less or none pointing to the major ones. Although, I have agreed with all what they have stated are or may be factors that could necessitate the failure of some Jambites, but as a young high school graduate, I know the reasons are far beyond those raised. You will get to know more when you read the subsequent paragraphs. I will take you on a little journey.

To begin with, the knowledge of computer literacy is nothing to write home about in some places. Even as at this 2021 JAMB period, a staff of a computer centre at one state university told me that many students could not even answer the questions simply because they don’t know how to operate the computer. He has to be teaching them how to use computer. I agreed, but some may not agree.

I could remember vividly that I once wrote on ICT literacy in an article commending the efforts of Honorable Minister of Communications, Dr. Isa Pantami on digital capacity building centres projects across several learning institutions in the country. At this juncture, I will thank President Muhammadu Buhari for appointing Honourable Minister Dr. Pantami as a minister and formerly a Director General of National Information and Technology Development Agency (NITDA). Dr. Pantami is a blessing to Nigeria. He has proven to be a true next level minister.

In my state, I knew schools that don’t have computer laboratories. Glory be to Almighty Allah, with the coming of Dr. Pantami, formerly Director General of NITDA and now the minister of communications and digital economy, many schools including secondary and tertiary institutions have benefitted from the digital capacity building centres projects he initiated. Dr Pantami even when he attained the position of the minister of communications of the federal republic of Nigeria, didn’t stop promoting digital literacy in Nigeria. More especially during lockdown, he introduced a lot of projects and commissioned many of them nationwide.

Taking this into cognisance, the coming of Pantami is a blessing to Nigeria. He tries to bridge the gap of computer literacy. Without his coming, I don’t know how students will fail JAMB. However, I can’t say that all students are computer literates. Some are from villages. I once met a bike man who told me that he came to the city to pay his JAMB. This is to say that there is no paying centre in their village. Eventually, he may come back to the city and write his exams. How will he learn computer and even pass JAMB? This is a question to ask.

There should be strong questions on the quality of education impacted on the students. The education system itself. You and I know the types of teachers we have today. The system itself we know it is shaking today. Some of the teachers in our schools are very wicked. They only know how to beat students but can’t teach well. They don’t have the required skills and knowledge to teach. They are there because of corruption or favouritism. This cannot be counted out of the reasons of Jambites failure. So, failing this year’s UTME is not a surprise.

The system has turned to something else today. Students go to miracle centres to pay for their WAEC and NECO. They spend tenths of thousands in order to pass without reading. However, JAMB didn’t tolerate this kind of malpractice now, through its computer based test. I could remember vividly that during our time, our JAMB score was higher than every other examination (like WAEC). Because we believe that it is what we wrote that would be marked with little or no corruption. We scored in hundreds. More than two hundred and half.

Next is, I am not in any way in disagreement with others opinions on this said ‘massive failure’. I have mostly agreed with what they have said. Like spending time on social media. It may contribute to their failure. While Facebook, WhatsApp and other platforms can aid learning processes, some students abuse such applications. I used most of this to learn and soar in the world more especially during my high school days. I wrote and published poems on Facebook. I won various literary competitions and connected with new people living in abroad. I googled some questions to get answers. Sadly, the children of today use it mostly for negative and semi negative purposes. No doubt, some use it positively.

As they said, another reason can be TV channels producing series of motion pictures that have taken the attention of many students nowadays. They are always anticipating the release of new series. Many of them can’t overlook and ignore such films. We ignored so many other things that’s capable consume our time, during our days and till date.

The biggest of all, reading culture. It is decaying. We can’t compare the level of our quest for knowledge with that of some students nowadays. They don’t like reading. Though reading can’t all be about joy. Can’t be everyone’s hobby but it must be done inorder to get a pass mark. With the passage of time, all would be history. We read books. We asked questions. Our teachers challenged us to read. They tested our capacity. We didn’t shame them. We made them proud. And we are taking ourselves to the world. I read the novel text given to me twice, despite the number of its pages. How many candidates read theirs, this year?

There is a factor that is mostly neglected in such examination which is studying the right syllabus. Many students went ahead to read or study what is not part of the syllabus or even went ahead to study everything. This is not easy. For a well organised examination like JAMB, one needs not suffer himself. He should just focus on the selected syllabus to maximize his score. I did this. And I am happy because I scored. I got the highest mark in my class, art in general.

As at that time, I don’t even have a laptop, but I collected my sister’s own. I inserted the JAMB CD to go through my subject combination syllabus. I spent good time doing this. I succeeded in marking all the areas of concentration. Therein, was a required text for reading. My school being among the best, was already using the JAMB recommended text as prescribed text books. I was just ticking on each topic they selected. This, has made many people who are lazy or busy with studies to meet me and request for my text book. I have given them and I am sure it works for them if they really read it.

In our area, there is one mosque I attend for prayers. There dwells one father who appreciates my performance and having known that I was attending an elite school, one of the best in my state, asked his son that was writing JAMB that year to meet me and see how we can collaborate on facing the computer based test. He was older than me. But he came and we discussed about the syllabus and the areas of concentration. I also gave him my text to see the selected syllabus. Alhamdu lilLah, we scored good marks. The power of collaboration.

Now to the root, parents. They can not be skipped in all these. You have read how a father played a key role in his son’s success in the above paragraph. They are the shepherds over their children. But now, how many are doing this? They should ensure that their wards are educated. From the year of my graduation to date, I have heard various cases of how parents selected courses of study for their wards. I have even intended to write on this topic since. This is also a serious issue.

Having attended an elite high school, where many children of medical consultants and other doctors in my state attended, I used to hear the kind of pressure they (doctors children) are receiving at home. In most of the cases, they are forced to study particular courses – medicine in particular. This is the habit of some parents. They want their children to be rich and so they must study medicine. Should in case they forget, Allah is the wealth Giver. He gives it to even an illiterate. Excessive love for money is not what brings it. Just believe, pray and work for it.

Forcing children to study a course they don’t like is a problem which could contribute to failure in any examination. The failure is beyond the test. I am not surprised with the cases of poor performance of so many staff in various places of their primary assignments. I don’t blame them but their parents. Ofcourse, if a student wants to read a particular course in a higher institution and he is forced to go for another, the JAMB subject combination may change. As such, the change plus his lack of interest in the subjects combination and the selected course may result in a poor result.

According to a series of reports by Muslim News Nigeria, there were several cases of HIJABOPHOBIA during this year’s JAMB. One of the cases was reported from Ringham University, In Nasarawa, where a security personnel, sadly, denied a female student access to the venue for wearing a hijab. If a security man can do this, what about the university management. The law should teach him a lesson. Securities in varsities are overstepping their boundaries. This is not the only institution that such case was recorded.

The coming of one christian woman, Maman Emma, to our work place recently, reminds me that those against Hijab are doing it for their own interest. She came with a long hijab. I was not surprised because that was not the only time I saw a christian woman with hijab. While our sisters are discriminated for wearing Hijab – veil to their examination venue, other christian women are wearing hijab at their own will in my state.

There are a lot of contributions on this issue. MURIC have been taking charge of hijab discrimination cases. What I can only advise is, it is high time that JAMB should stop sending muslim girls to christian own centres and or institutions in order to avoid such occurrences. This is not the first case. They do not want to obey the law. I think this will be the only lasting solution to this long struggle for hijab right. In WAEC and NECO, we don’t hear about such cases. Our muslim sisters pay in muslims owned and run institutions. Therefore, allowing such centers to continue with this discrimination, is a total denial of female muslim students rights. And we know our rights.

May Allah protect our muslim brothers and sisters as they journey to higher institutions of learning.

Muhammad Auwal Ibrahim is an award-winning journalist, fellow African Investigative Journalism Conference (AIJC) 2020, Wits University, Johannesburg, South Africa. Can be reached via awwalbinibrahim@gmail.com