EFFECT OF JAMB POLICY ON STUDENT AND REPUTATION OF THE PETROLEUM TRAINING INSTITUTE

The Petroleum Training Institute, known for its strict policies has been perceived by most Nigerians to be an Institute of learning meant for only smart and serious students. This idea had been birthed from the fact that the PTI entrance examination was to be compared to that of few tertiary institutions in Nigeria in terms of difficulty.

Mostly, those who were well prepared were offered provisional admission into the institute. While sometimes persons who were well prepared before writing the entrance examination are scarcely not admitted, it was counted a privilege to be in the institute as a student by those that were.

The last PTI entrance examination was conducted for the 2016/2017 academic session of which the number of students admitted was pretty small compared to the number of persons who wrote the examination all over Nigeria, as it had always been anticipated.

And although almost every first examination result comes with an ‘advised to withdraw’ notice for one or two students in few departments, this was part of what made the remaining students firm and serious. Once it was heard that a student was caught cheating in an examination hall, with evidence, in the institute, everyone knew the student was going home, this was a standard which kept all students in every department on their toes, resulting to total dependence on themselves and in return good grades at least.

Students from the Petroleum Training Institute could stand with colleagues from other institutions and display brain power, even they could be distinguished by certain persons and organisations outside the walls of the Institute.

All these experiences were counter balanced with one session of change, maybe mimicking the current administration in the country. What was meant to be help to the Nigerian students had become a blow both to their families and to the reputation of the institute, although the institute had collected all that money already, who is really at loss?

The number of students admitted for the 2017/2018 academic session skyrocketed due to the policy put in place which substituted the PTI entrance examination with the use of JAMB as a means into the Petroleum Training Institute. This was a good thing, of which more persons would obtain the privilege of gaining admission into the institute, but it became as though admission was offered to every single person who applied, unsurprisingly with Nigerians knowing how low the standard of the Joint Admissions and Matriculations Board (JAMB) had become.

At least from the rumours and orientations that these new students had gotten outside and within the premises of the Institute, it was expected that most of them would buckle up, especially those who gained admission to the National Diploma programme. There were so many faults and lapses which the returning students had never seen before in PTI, ranging from students smoking in public to the midnight romance which was now a norm as most students now had someone to meet up with each night, while their academics suffer.

News of the exceedingly poor performance of students in the institute after the first semester exam for the session was no shocker since almost every returning student had been like a fortune teller, revealing the amount of un-seriousness which had been displayed formerly.

What used to be ‘one or two’ withdrawals from some departments had become like an award to a lot of students who were now advised to withdraw from the institute, and this ‘advice’ hasn’t actually ever been an advice, if you know what I mean.

      Writing this does not give me joy, because I am currently a student of the Petroleum Training Institute, and I have imagined what it would feel like to be withdrawn from the institution after paying numerous amount of fees, especially in a country as ‘good’ as Nigeria.

Well, I say kudos to all students who did well in their first semester examination and those who did not do too well but are still students of the institute, there is always room for improvement.