
ABUJA- THE Senate had begun moves to
scrap the post Unified Matriculation Examination, UME as it yesterday
mandated its committee on Tertiary Education to meet with relevant
stakeholders, especially the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board
(JAMB) and come up with recommendations on how to achieve the set goal.
According to the Senate, the move has
become imperative because the introduction of the post – UME examination
has to a large extent failed to remedy the problems associated with the
JAMB, adding that its continued existence has posed more challenges for
the Nigeria educational system.
The Senate has also called for the
development of a strategy that would ensure the efficiency and integrity
in the conduct of JAMB examination.
The resolutions of the Senate Tuesday
followed a motion by Senator Umaru l. Kurfi, APC, Katsina Central and
entitled, “The Need to revisit the regulatory conflict between Joint
Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) Universities in offering
admission in Nigeria.”
In his presentation of the motion,
Senator Umaru l. Kurfi said that “The Senate: Notes that the Joint
Admission Matriculation Board (JAMB) was established in 1976 and saddled
with the responsibility of streamlining and co- ordinating admission
practice as well as determining who is admitted into universities and
other tertiary educational institutions in Nigeria;
“Further notes that that the Nigerian
Universities Commission (NUC) is the Federal umbrella organization which
oversees the administration of University education in Nigaria, and
prior to 2005 , the truly criteria needed for candidates seeking
admission into tertiary institutions was for such candidate to have
minimum admission requirement and possess a certain score at his or her
JAMB examination.
“Aware that the laudable objectives of
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.
“Further aware as scores of successful
JAMB candidates turned out ill equipped for university education, the
Federal Government, in 2005, under the leadership of President Olusegun
Obasanjo , introduced the policy of Post-UME screening by Universities
which made it compulsory for tertiary institutions to screen candidates
after JAMB results and before offering admission;
“Worried that while 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;
“Cognizance that while the executives
introduced the Post-UME policy as a remedy to the decay in educational
standard in higher institutions of learning, there have been public
outcry of extortion from candidates despite the rigorous test they pass
through at JAMB;
“Disturbed that as 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 maximizing the income flows through these internal
examinations;
“Regrets that the introduction of the
post – UME examination has to a large extent failed to remedy the
problems associated with the JAMB and as such, its continued existence
has posed more challenges for the Nigeria educational system.”
0 comments:
Post a Comment