In order to alleviate financial stress on Nigerians, the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) management has been advised to extend the validity of its results beyond a year.
This will allow applicants who are not granted admission that year to reapply in the following academic session using the same results.
The guidance was provided by Comrade Abdullahi Yelwa, National Publicity of the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP), in a paper he delivered as a guest speaker at the “first Bauchi South Stakeholders Interactive Session,” which was held on Saturday at the Event Centre in Bauchi and was organised by Senator Buba Umar, the senator representing the Bauchi South Senatorial District.
Yalwa also urged the senator to provide funding for an initiative that will support those academically gifted but underprivileged students. A good education at a reasonable price is, in his opinion, the greatest legacy one can leave for the next generation.
According to Yalwa, JAMB is obviously extorting Nigerians who are applying for admission to the nation’s higher education institutions.The senior lecturer at Abubakar Tatari Ali Polytechnic (ATAP) questioned why JAMB, which is meant to be a government institution focused on providing services, has changed into a means of raising money and needslessly causing immense suffering to Nigerians.
According to him, “On students enrollment into higher institutions, particularly, I have observed the trend at which educational regulatory institutions, especially JAMB as an institution of government, has become a revenue-generating institution rather than a service-oriented institution.
“What JAMB is doing now is extorting Nigerians and causing unnecessary hardship on Nigerians and also locking opportunities instead of widening and increasing opportunities for enrollment in tertiary institutions.
“The acclaimed four choices in JAMB or UTME is just a mirage, because, in reality and practice, there’s only one choice of institution. No matter what your score is, if you cannot get admission in the current session, your score is useless, you’ll have to do it again.
“This is focusing on revenue generation and this issue of changing institutions constantly because any institution that is not your first choice, cannot give you admission. So, there’s no need for second, third or fourth choices if you can’t get admission there.
“You must go back to JAMB and you must pay and change the institution. So, JAMB should stop deceiving Nigerians, they should stop wasting the resources of Nigerians and we should respect these choices.
“If you cannot get admission in the first choice, the others should offer you admission so that our children will not be subjected to untold hardship.”