Members of the Senate had begun moves to scrap the post-Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (Post-UTME) conducted by universities after the candidates had passed the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination by the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board.
The lawmakers, while debating a motion moved by Senator Umaru Kurfi (Katsina-Central) at the plenary on Tuesday, decried that candidates were finding it difficult to gain admission to Nigeria’s tertiary institutions but find it easy in other countries.
The motion was titled, ‘The Need to Revisit the Regulatory Conflict between Joint Admission and Matriculation Board and Universities in Offering Admission in Nigeria.’
Seconding the motion, Senator Shehu Sani decried that securing admission into tertiary institutions had become difficult at a time when Nigeria was struggling to protect its economy. He stated that there was the need to simplify the process of getting admission into higher institutions of learning.
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“JAMB has been literally jamming the future of our young people, in the very sense that there has been a lot of impediments that has seriously affected their ability to get into the university,” he said.
“But in all honesty, this motion brings to spot light solutions that if supported by this senate will go a long way.Our concern is that after JAMB comes Post-UME that becomes a series of hardship and suffering in the way people get into the universities.
“The problem we face here is peculiar to us, it is easier for a Nigerian to secure admission outside the country than it is here. Why should that be so? I think in this era where we are trying to do everything possible to conserve our foreign exchange, there is a the need to simplify the process in which young people get admission into our universities.”
Earlier, Kurfi who moved the motion said though the post-UME policy was introduced to remedy to the decay in the country’s educational system, it had been an “outcry of extortion from candidates”.
“JAMB began to suffer progressive denudation shortly after its inception as some universities admitted students outside the list sent by JAMB, and rejecting candidates with admission letters from JAMB on the ground that they had to comply with their own internal quota and catchment calculation, coupled with the issue of malpractices that plagued JAMB examinations,” he said.
“This new development was aimed at addressing the problem of student quality, it reintroduced and entrenched many of the problems it sought to eliminate through JAMB.
“The integrity of the post -UME examination is open to question as the pecuniary motive of the respective institutions comes so visibly to the fore that there is little pretence about maximising the income flows through this internal examination.”
The senate resolved to invite Adamu Adamu, minister of education, Is-haq Oloyede, registrar of JAMB, and other stakeholders to a meeting to address the issue.
