ASSESSMENT OF CORRELATION BETWEEN UTME, POSTUTME AND STUDENT ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE ( EDUCATION PROJECT TOPICS AND MATERIALS)
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
- Background of the study
In order to qualify for admission in the Nigerian university, a candidate must satisfy some minimum requirements. In the first place he or she must obtain five relevant credits in the senior secondary school certificate examination including English and in some cased mathematics. In addition such a candidate must sit for and obtain a minimum pass mark in the University Matriculation Examination conducted by the Joint admission and matriculation Board(JAMB) as well as pass an additional post university matriculation examination screening test (post-UME) conducted by the selected university. Notwithstanding those stringent requirements for admission, most Nigerian students still perform badly I their semester examination and indulge in a variety of examination malpractices which make the conduct of examination a tedious chore that may degenerate into life threatening or due at the worst. Malpractice committed by a candidate to make up of their deficiencies in knowledge include using prepared materials brought in by candidates as hard copies hidden in obscure in part of the body or as a soft copy stored in the memory of sophisticated handsets, sourcing answers from outside the hall through the medium of text messages, using machineries to write examinations illegally and writing examinations for which they were not registered.
This investigation was prompted by series of evidence across Nigeria. For example, in a discussion with a student after the first semester examination conducted by the department of microbiology at the university of port Harcourt during the 2010/2011 session it was revealed that a candidate, a year two micro biology student estimated to be about 30years old (official age 26) was found wriing an examination for which he was not registered. Investigation reveaved that he was admitted through the UME/post UME process with scores of 211 and 80 respectively and a means of 146.An evaluation of his computerized speed-sheet for years one2009/2O1O Session showed a CGPA of 0.14 .further investigation revealed that the student had been out of school for about 10 years before finally gained admission through ‘’concession’’ to read micro biology.The observation that the candidate had a very low score in the post-UME screening test ,and still gained admission prompted this study which aims at investigating the relationship between the cumulative Grade Point Average [CGPA] of students in the firth year of study and their performance in the university Matriculation Examination and post UME Screening test ,a major parameter for admission.
