The Senate on Tuesday summoned the Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, Prof. Dibu Ojerinde, to give explanations about the difficulties surrounding admissions into the nation’s universities.
In addition, the Senate ordered its standing Committee on Education to investigate circumstances surrounding the new JAMB policy, including allegations of favouritism, which has allegedly made admission difficult.
The Senate decision was sequel to a motion sponsored Senator Joshua Lidani, who informed the lawmakers of frustrations being encountered by JAMB candidates in their search for admissions into tertiary institutions.
Lidani expressed concerns over a recent policy, which empowers JAMB to reassign applicants for Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination in universities with excessive number of candidates to universities with lower number of applicants.
He listed benefits of the policy to include enabling universities with lower number of applicants to have enough candidates for admission and simultaneously providing applicants with better chances of securing admissions.
However, Lidani expressed concerns about this policy, saying since the announcement of the policy, JAMB has been facing a series of protests from parents, candidates and organisations such as Association of Tutorial School Operators of Nigeria, who have rejected the policy.
According to him, the new policy is a violation of Section 5(1)(ciii) of the JAMB Act, which authorises JAMB to take cognizance of candidates’ preferences for choices of institutions.
He also expressed concerns that only applicants whose names are forwarded to universities are eligible for post UTME, noting that others have to return to JAMB website to search for their new institutions.
Other senators who contributed to the motion spoke in support of the motion.
They agreed that JAMB’s recent admission policy has become complex and more complicated, especially since the introduction of UTME, and hence canvassed the need to address the trend.
After exhaustive debate, the Committee on Education was also mandated to review the power of JAMB on issues revolving around admission issues.
The upper legislative chamber also asked JAMB to extend the validity of candidates’ admissions into tertiary institutions from 12 months to 36 months to ease the pressure faced by parents who cannot easily raise funds to send their children to schools.