THE Senate, yesterday, directed the Joint
Admissions and Matriculation Board, JAMB, to begin to
extend the validity of its results to a period of three
years.
This was even as it ordered the board to immediately
stop its policy of re-assigning candidates to schools they
never applied to, saying such policy was contrary to the
act establishing the board.
To this end, results obtained from the board by
candidates seeking admission into universities are
expected to last for three years.
The red chamber, which order came following a motion
entitled: ”JAMB’s New Admission Policy, “ sponsored by
Senator Joshua Lidani, APC, Gombe South, which was
debated during plenary, also urged JAMB to consult
widely with Parents Teachers Association, ASUU and all
other stakeholders in the education sector with a view to
coming out with a friendlier holistic, comprehensive and
sustainable admissions policy.
It also directed its Committee on Education to enquire
into circumstances surrounding the JAMB policy,
including all allegations of favouritism and generally
review the power of JAMB vis-a-vis administration and
submit findings within one week.
Earlier, in his motion, Senator Lidani frowned at the
JAMB’s policy of posting candidates to schools, including
private universities whose fees, he noted, were beyond
the means of the candidates’ parents or guardians, saying
in some cases, candidate were posted to universities
located far away from their places of abode thus placing
additional financial burden on their parents.
Lidani expressed worry that although the Federal Ministry
of Education had since suspended the implementation of
this policy, JAMB was still going ahead with its
implementation, thus creating more hardship for parents
and uncertainty in the education sector.
He said he was concerned given that the policy runs
contrary to the letters and spirit of Section 5(1)(C) iii of
the JAMB Act, which according to him, requires that JAMB
should take into account preferences of the candidates in
their choices of schools and the subsequent confusion
surrounding the directive that only candidates whose
names were forwarded to the university by JAMB were
eligible for post-UTME screening and others would have
to go back to JAMB website to find out their new
institutions.
Senator Lidani expressed concern that since the policy
was announced, the board was faced with series of
massive protests by parents and candidates of and some
organizations like the Association of Tutorial School
Operators of Nigeria as well as other numerous
stakeholders.
He said JAMB, at its 2015 Combined Policy Meeting, held
on July 14, 2015, in Abuja, announced the adoption of a
policy whereby candidates of universities with surplus
applicants for the Unified Tertiary Matriculation
Examinations, UTME, were reassigned to other
universities with lower number of candidates than their
capacities.
While noting that JAMB was a board created by an Act of
the National Assembly in 1989 to administer a centralized
admission for universities, polytechnics and colleges of
education in Nigeria.
He further noted that by Section 5(1) (C) iii of the JAMB
Act 2004, the function of the board, among other things,
was the general control of the conduct of the
matriculation examinations for admission into all
universities, polytechnics and colleges of education and
also include the placement of suitable qualified
candidates in the tertiary institutions having taken into
account, the preferences expressed or otherwise
indicated by candidates for certain tertiary institutions
and courses.
