A member of the House of Representatives has urged the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) to prolong the duration of validity for its Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) to three years.
The lower legislative chamber made this appeal on Wednesday, also requesting JAMB to hold the UTME at least twice annually.
The motion was introduced by Hon. Akintunde Rotimi, the representative for Ekiti North 1 federal constituency. He expressed apprehension over the current one-year validity period for UTME results.
During his presentation, Rotimi expressed concern about the situation where candidates are unable to gain admission to their preferred higher education institutions in a given academic year, rendering their results futile.
The member of the House of Representatives then urged JAMB to reconsider their current system in order to align with international norms.
“The move would bring immediate relief to students and their parents/sponsors, who bear the burden of paying every year for the exam, as well as give candidates multiple windows to sit for the exam in a year,” he explained.
“In addition to passing my motion, the honourable house also passed a motion for an additional prayer moved by Hon. Olumide Osoba, establishing an ad-hoc committee of the house to liaise with the authorities of JAMB and the ministry of education to ensure the resolution is expeditiously carried out,” he said.
Rotimi mentioned that despite ASUU’s continuous strikes, which caused an entire academic year to be lost, JAMB proceeded to conduct its examination without taking into account the ongoing industrial action.
He explained that as a result, there has consistently been a backlog of candidates waiting for admission into the limited available spaces in the country’s tertiary institutions, which puts significant pressure on the education system and parents.
Rotimi emphasized that parents are compelled to annually register their children for the UTME, even when they were unable to secure admission due to the large number of applicants.
Speaker of the House of Representatives, Tajudeen Abbas, declared that an ad-hoc committee would be formed to engage with the Federal Ministry of Education to ensure compliance with the situation.
