The Senate on Wednesday, 2nd March 2016 has recommended to increase the validity of the Joint Admission Matriculation Board Examination (JAMB) results from its present one-year to three years. The rationale for the resolution was premised on the fact that students and parents spend a lot yearly in the purchase of scratch cards required for registration. This resolution was made following a consideration of the report presented by the Senate Committee on Tertiary Institutions and TETFUND. The committee was mandated on 17th November 2015 to consider, among other things, a new policy by JAMB which entails that a candidate will make a choice of one university, one polytechnic and one college of Education and then seat for a computer based test (CBT) to gain admission into any institution in the country.
The Committee noted in its report that it met with critical stakeholders like the Minister of Education, the Registrar of JAMB, and National Directors of National University Commission. The committee further noted that most students preferred studying in universities rather than polytechnics and colleges of Education thereby creating waste in the spaces available in polytechnics and colleges of Education. Furthermore, they observed that private universities were often unattractive because of high tuition fees. According to JAMB this was also the rationale for introducing the new policy.
In addition to recommending the increase of the validity of JAMB examination results, the committee also recommended JAMB concludes all actions on the policy before the conduct of the next JAMB examination; and also that JAMB fee should not exceed two thousand Five Hundred Naira Only (2,500.00). Currently the fee stands at about Five thousand Hundred (5,000.00).
