‘Why NASS should revisit UTME result validity period’

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has received a lot of criticisms for using the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) annual registration fees to fleece the poor and hapless Nigerian parents on a yearly basis. If otherwise, the UTME result should remain valid for at least two years as once recommended by the Senate, UJI ABDULLAHI ILIYASU reports.

Background

The Joint Admissions and Matriculations Board (JAMB) is a Nigerian entrance examination body for tertiary institutions of learning.

It conducts the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) into Nigerian higher institutions, namely, universities, polytechnics, monotechnics and colleges of educations. All candidates must have obtained the Senior School Certificate administered by the West African examinations Council (WAEC) or the National Examinations Council (NECO).

The 2020 UTME and Direct Entry (DE) exams commenced from March 14, and will end on   April 4, 2020. So far, JAMB authorities have disclosed that 2020 is the year they recorded the highest number of registered candidates, as over 2.1 million candidates registered the examination.

A score of 100 mark will earn a candidate a place in polytechnics or colleges of education. A score above 160 makes a candidate eligible for university admission.

JAMB criticised  

To critical stakeholders, nothing is truer than the statement that JAMB is similar to revenue-generating agencies of government. If it is otherwise, why should UTME result be valid for only one year? Why are Nigerian parents forced to cough out N3500 to N4700 naira every year for places for their children and wards in Nigerian tertiary institutions? What do we get by multiplying this figure by two million?

Senate’s three-year validity

In November 2015, Senate asked JAMB to extend validity period of UTME to three years to lessen parents’ annual financial burdens.  

Senate also 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, they want UTME results to last for three years, through a motion entitled, ”JAMB’s New Admission Policy,”  sponsored by Senator Joshua Lidani (APC, Gombe South). During plenary, the lawmakers also urged JAMB to consult widely with Parents Teachers Association, Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and all other stakeholders in the education sector with a view to coming out with a “friendlier, holistic, comprehensive and sustainable admission policy”.

It also directed its committee on education to enquire into circumstances surrounding JAMB policy, including all allegations of favouritism and generally review the power of JAMB vis-a-vis administration and submit findings within one week.

Senator Lidani had earlier frowned at JAMB’s policy of posting candidates to schools, including private universities, with their prohibitive fees, which were beyond the financial capability of candidates, parents and guardians.

 He argued that in some cases, candidates were posted to universities located far away from their places of abode, thus placing additional financial burden on their parents.

 Lidani said he was concerned because such 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 takes into account preferences of the candidates in their choice of schools.

 He noted that JAMB is a board created by an Act of the National Assembly in 1989 to administer a centralised 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, is 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.

Parents and students welcomed the resolution with open arms because it would save cost and ritual of sitting for the exams every year if a candidate fails to gain admission into a university, but their joy was shortlived.

Senate criticised

On the legal perspective, Professor Itse Sagay said, “It is not binding because JAMB is an executive body. They cannot pass a resolution on such body, but can only give an advice. The resolution is like making a request. Only the Minister of Education, or the council governing JAMB can take such decisions. The National Assembly is a legislative body. It is a different thing if they have passed a Bill signed into law to that effect.”

Also, an Associate Professor, Dr Oluyombo Onafowokan, said that the directive by the Senate that JAMB should extend the validity of its results to three years would have negative effect on the nation’s standard of education. Onafowokan, a senior lecturer at the School of Management and Social Sciences, Pan Atlantic University, Lagos, made the observation in an interview in Sango-Ota, Ogun state.

He noted that such policy would make students lose scholarship and become unserious.

“I think the new policy will also create room for redundancy, since they know that their JAMB result could be used to enter the university for three years,’’ he said.

He argued that JAMB should be allowed to continue with the best ways known to it in handling the examination annually.

Earlier, the Senate had reacted to the chairman, Senate Committee on Tertiary Institutions and TETFUND, Senator Binta Masi Garba’s submission and consideration on JAMB admission policies, by fixing N2,500 as JAMB fee.  Similarly, it has also extended the validity of JAMB results from one to three years while institution and course forms and all other incidental activities around the examination should be free.

The new JAMB policy entails that a candidate makes a choice of one university, one polytechnic and one college of education and then sit for a computer-based test (CBT) to gain admission into any tertiary institution in the country.

In the same vein, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Mrs. Funke Adekoya said, “The resolutions by the Senate are not binding on JAMB. The House of Representatives are yet to make a law and not a resolution that is binding on JAMB. It is mere advice and it is not binding.

“If JAMB does not obey, there is no law that has been broken or breached. The resolution only indicates that the Senate is concerned about the high cost, but they have not made a law to back up their resolution.’’

JAMB ignored Senate

Empowered by some lawyers, JAMB registrar easily disobeyed Senate’s directive. Oloyede stated in Abuja at a stakeholders’ meeting with former JAMB members and civil society groups on the 2018/2019 admissions guidelines that UTME result would not be valid after a year.

A cross section of parents in the country who had applauded the proposed legislation to extend JAMB results’ validity for a period of three years, were left in the cold. The parents said in Abuja that the amendment would not only ease the financial burden on them but also enable universities to upgrade their standard. But their joy was short-lived, probably because the Nigerian factor had forced the lawmakers to change tactics. Some critical stakeholders think the body might have settled the lawmakers to change their mind. They said usually, the lawmakers on oversight functions, at the initial stage, frighten government agencies in order to get juicy settlements.

Senate makes u-turn

In October 2016, the Senate, despite its earlier proposal to amend the Act establishing JAMB, suspended the idea abruptly.

A statement issued in Abuja by spokesperson of JAMB, Dr Fabian Benjamin, said the then chairman, Senate Committee on Basic and Secondary Education, Aliyu Wamakko, represented by Senator Ajayi Boroffice, made the announcement about the suspension of the amendment during an oversight visit to the headquarters of JAMB.

The excuse was that the suspension was to avoid impeding on the progress being made by JAMB in the conduct of examinations in Nigeria.

 “Your JAMB result is only valid for one year and we thought it will be better for it to be valid at least for three years. It will reduce the burden on the parents, on the students themselves, even on the institution that is conducting the test. I think it is what is good for all of us and I don’t think the public will reject it.

“As I said we don’t make law for an individual or for Senate. We make law for the country in the interest of all of us. A Bill must not necessarily be at the convenience of a particular organisation, having said that, since we don’t want to make a law that will impede the progress of any institution we are bound to listen to what they are saying. We are bound to listen to them.

“I think JAMB has made so much progress over the years and all we can say is that they should continue to improve on their performance because the lives of millions of Nigerians will depend on them, and I hope the confidence they will repose in them will be able to justify it. We are happy with our visit, we are happy with the registrar, we are happy with the management and I think we are happy with ourselves too,” he said.

Definitely, if JAMB had met their financial expectation, they had a cause to be happy and appreciate the registrar’s gesture. Who wouldn’t?

In paying back the friendly Senators, Professor Is-haq Oloyede said he was happy the Senate listened to his appeal, and begged members of the House of Representatives and the Executive to follow in the footstep of the Senate by suspending the amended Act.

 “I believe that they must have considered so many things before coming to that conclusion at that time, but my appeal is to the other legs – the House of Representatives and to the President that it will do more harm to the students than good.

“One problem I find is that when there is a problem rather than studying the problem and look for strategy to solving them, we will jump into conclusion which is more dangerous than the original problem,” he said.

Revisit Senate’s directive

According to the National Universities Commission (NUC) official site, there are 43 federal universities, 52 state universities, and 79 private universities; making it a total of 174 universities in Nigeria.

Out of the over two million candidates who sat for the 2020 UTME, more than two third would not be able to get placement in their choice schools due to limited spaces.

If two third of over two million candidates who paid about 4700 as JAMB registration fees could not get admission to their choice courses and schools, the waste is imaginable.

JAMB is therefore, urged to render social services to citizens, but not to be used as a revenue-generating agency of government just because some privileged people are benefitting from the anguish of their compatriots.

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