Reason Why UNILAG should not merge 2020/2021 and 2021/2022 academic session together

The Management of University of Lagos (UNILAG) has decided to merge two academic sessions (2020 and 2021 JAMBITES) together to amend its academic calendar which was affected by the COVID 19 lockdown and ASUU nine months old strike which took place last year. The institution will be admitting Seventy percent (70%) from 2020 JAMBITES and Thirty percent (30%) from 2021 JAMBITES.

According to the institution's present academic calendar, the proposed resumption date is Monday, 22nd November 2021. The main aim of writing this article is to state reasons why UNILAG should not merge both sessions together in the paragraphs below.

Time Frame: One reason why the institution should not merge is because the time frame from now to the proposed resumption date is too short. The 2021 JAMBITES are yet to write their Post UTME examination and postponement of the proposed resumption date will be delay on the part of 2020 JAMBITES who have wasted a lot of stress and time at home due to all what occurred last year.

Awaiting Result: The issue of awaiting result is another factor to be considered. There are some candidates who applied for this year JAMB using awaiting result. Looking at this from that angle, the WAEC examination is yet to be concluded and the date of release of the results when calculated will be too close to the proposed resumption date. The use of awaiting result will slow down the admission process thereby causing a delay or shift in the resumption date.

Admission Capacity: The institution decided to admit 30% of candidates who made them as First choice in the 2021 UTME examination. According to statistics, Fifty Nine thousand, One hundred and Ninety (59,190) candidates chose UNILAG as their first choice making them the second institution with high number of applicants. Therefore admitting Seventeen Thousand, Seven hundred and Fifty Seven (30% of 59,190) will cause an increase in the number of candidates that will apply for JAMB next year.

With all these reasons listed above and other opinions, merging should not be considered. Instead, the 2020 JAMBITES should resume on the proposed resumption date while the 2021 JAMBITES should resume for the next academic session or be merged with 2022 JAMBITES.

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