Bill To Make JAMB Result Valid For 4 Years Passes Second Reading

A Bill seeking to make the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) result conducted by the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) valid for four years has passed second reading in the House of Representatives.

The Amendment of the JAMB Act was sponsored by Rep. Tolulope Sadipe (APC-Oyo), at the plenary on Thursday.

Leading the debate, Sadipe said many students sit for the UTME examination and come up with good grades, but for one reason or the other, they ended up not being offered admission, for no fault of theirs.

She said these students and their parents, were made to bear the financial burden to sit for the examination the next year.

According to her, the excuses that JAMB allegedly keeps bringing up, in that regard, was that it was revenue generation for them.

However, Nkem Abonta (PDP-Abia), argued that extending the validity of JAMB-UTME result would defeat the aim of the entry exams.

He said that JAMB Act, sought to regulate the mode of entry into Nigerian universities.

Adding that making the result valid for two to three years would cause more problems.

Abonta said the relevant committee should look at the proposed amendment critically, so as not to compound the problem, in an attempt to solve it.