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/
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