Senate Asks JAMB To Extend Validity Of
Results To 3 Years
ABUJA— 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.
http://www.vanguardngr.com/2015/11/senate-asks-jamb-to-extend-validity-of-results-to-3-years/http://www.vanguardngr.com/2015/11/senate-asks-jamb-to-extend-validity-of-results-to-3-years/
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