By Agboola Bayo
Ibadan
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), yesterday rejected the newly introduced re-assignment of candidates against their choices by the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB).
ASUU through its University of Ibadan chapter described the new policy by JAMB as unacceptable as it was capable of making admission process chaotic and exposed candidates to fraudsters.
The union, therefore, asked President Muhammadu Buhari to call JAMB to order so as not to make children of the masses who populated public schools to suffer.
In a statement signed by its chairman, Professor Segun Ajiboye, the union asked JAMB to “respect candidates’ preferences and choices for tertiary institutions and consider security of lives of candidates, cost, proximity, quality, and rights of the Nigerian child in arriving at any policy”.
ASUU stated that there is the need for all stakeholders in the education sector as well as other Nigerians to Join in calling for the total scrapping of JAMB as “it has outlived its usefulness”, saying the “policy is insensitive and exploitative of the children of the poor as it amounted to abuse of their fundamental human rights of freedom of choice.
The union berated the Professor Dibu Ojerinde and the JAMB governing board “for being so insensitive to the plights of the Nigerian masses whose parents have not been paid for months by some governors but are now being forced to pay N1, 000 to know where they are reassigned against their choices.
“Candidates choose universities considering quality, cost, proximity, courses of choice, among others. Will JAMB pay for the fees so charged by the institutions, including exorbitant fees in private and State universities, where the candidates have been reassigned?
“If a candidate is reassigned from Lagos to Ondo State, Will Professor Dibu Ojerinde foot the bill and expenses incurred and in case of any accident. Who is JAMB protecting the candidates or their cronies in other institutions? It has to go,” it said.
