The recent Federal Government’s move to attract more candidates to teaching may not yield the needed result soon, as universities offering education and their affiliate institutions continue to receive low patronage.

Of the 1.4 million candidates that sat for this year’s Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination, only 19,428 candidates – representing less than two per cent – applied to study education.

Of the 19,428 candidates, the Tai Solarin University of Education obtained the highest number of applicants with 5,101 candidates, while four of the nation’s colleges of education had a candidate each.

The schools with a candidate each are College of Education, Ankpa (affiliated to the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, Bauchi); Federal College of Education (Technical) Gombe, (affiliated to ATBU); Shehu Shagari College of Education, Sokoto (affiliated to Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Kaduna State) and Umar Ibn Ibrahim El-Kanemi College of Education, Science and Technology, Bama, Bornu State.

The Federal College of Education (Technical), Asaba (affiliated to the Federal University of Technology, Minna), has two candidates; Federal College of Education, Kontagora (affiliated to ABU), three candidates; while Kwara State College of Education (Technical), Lafia (affiliated to ABU, Zaria) has three candidates.

Also, while Michael Otedola College of Primary Education, Noforija, Epe, Lagos (affiliated to Ekiti State University), alongside Niger State College of Education, Minna (affiliated to ABU, Zaria), has seven candidates each; College of Education, Akwanga (affiliated to ABU Zaria) has only 15 applicants.

Osun State College of Education, Ila-Orangun (affiliated to University of Uyo, Akwa Ibom State) has 30 candidates. Of the 30, 25 candidates chose the college as their first choice institution, while five others chose it as their second choice school.

A Joint Admissions Matriculation Board document entitled, “the Statistics of choice of institutions,” obtained by our correspondent on Monday, revealed this.

The Federal Government, only two weeks ago, upgraded four colleges of education to universities of education. They are the Alvan Ikoku Federal College of Education, Owerri; Adeyemi Federal College of Education, Ondo; Federal College of Education, Zaria; and Federal College of Education, Kano.

The JAMB document also showed that FCE, Zaria, hitherto affiliated to ABU, Zaria, received only 28 applicants in this year’s UTME.

Whereas only 41 candidates applied to study at the FCE Kano, an affiliate of ABU, Zaria; Adeyemi College of Education (affiliated to Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun State) and Alvan Ikoku College of Education, Owerri (affiliated to the University of Nigeria, Nsukka) got 3,363 and 3, 894 candidates respectively.

Meanwhile, despite the stable academic calendar in private universities, they still do not fascinate the majority of the Nigerian students and their sponsors.

For the second year running, information from the same JAMB document shows that only about two per cent of candidates seeking university education in the country prefer private ivory towers.

In fact, findings show that of the 1.4 million candidates, less than 20, 000 candidates – representing two per cent – chose to study in the more than 60 private universities in the country.

In other words, 98 per cent others prefer the public universities.

Of the candidates seeking admission to private universities, the Covenant University, Ota, Ogun State, has the highest number of applicants with 3,042 candidates. Last year, the school belonging to the Living Faith Church, led by Bishop David Oyedepo, had 3,315 candidates.

The three oldest private universities – Babcock University, Ilishan-Remo; Madonna University, Okija and the Igbinedion University Okada – have 2, 101; and 686 and 426 in that order. In 2014 UTME, the trio had 2,139, 1,021 and 658 applicants respectively.

The Bells University, Ota, Ogun State, owned by former President Olusegun Obasanjo, has only 173 candidates, while the American University of Nigeria, Yola, belonging to a former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, has 198 candidates.

With only five candidates, the Kwarafa University, Wukari, occupied the last position in getting patronage from potential candidates seeking admission to private universities in the country this year. The Obong University, Obong, Ntak, Akwa Ibom State and the Southwestern University, Okun-Owa, Ogun State, occupied this position in 2014. They had only four candidates seeking placement in each of the institutions.

Again, whereas Obong University, Ntak, has increased its profile by having 16 candidates this year, Southwestern University, Okun-Owa, upped its ranking by having two more candidates. The Wellspring University, Ogbaneki, Benin, Edo State, has seven candidates while each of Renaissance University, Ojiagu-Agbani, Enugu and Rhena University, Obeama, Rivers State, has eight and 10 candidates respectively.

With 107,491 candidates, the University of Ilorin, Kwara State again topped the chart, dusting the nation’s premier university, the University of Ibadan, to a distant seventh position. UNILORIN also topped the slot in 2014.

The University of Benin, Edo State, is occupying the second position this year with 71,497 candidates; Nnamdi Azikwe University, Awka, Anambra State, is third with 70,609 candidates, while the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, is fourth with 66,791 candidates.

The University of Lagos has 62,473 candidates, placing it in the fifth position; Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, has 60,254 candidates to occupy the sixth position, while UI has 47, 501 candidates. The Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, which had 60,402 applicants in 2014, attracted only 43,967 candidates this year.

The University of Maiduguri, which used to attract a high number of students before the invasion of the North East by Boko Haram, appealed to only 20, 322 candidates.

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