JAMB rejects Senate’s call for UTME result extension

The recommendation by the Senate that all results for entry into tertiary institutions should last for three years will distort and delay the future of students across the country, the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board has stated.

The organisation therefore said it would be in the interest of the public for stakeholders to answer critical questions regarding such a policy.

The Registrar of JAMB, Prof. Dibu Ojerinde, said this in Abuja during the opening ceremony of JAMB-UNEB Benchmark on Item Banking.

He argued that such a policy would obstruct the education progress of students across board.

Ojerinde said that expressing reservations about the Senate position did not in any way signify opposition to cutting cost.

He said, “There are complexities in this thing, until we are able to clear it. When you say you will use JAMB results for three years, is it an achievement test or aptitude test? However, are we delaying his or her life? Are we postponing his or her life by telling them to stay at home? If by next year he doesn’t get the cut off points, what happens?

“I have nothing against the idea, because we will tell the children, ‘those bluffing Polytechnics and College of Education, go there and waste their time’, if it is a waste of time.”

Ojerinde also informed journalists that cyber cafés across the country would no longer be allowed to register candidates for tertiary education examinations.

“In the final analysis, cyber cafes are not allowed to register candidates for a number of reasons. Cyber cafés may have their address here today, tomorrow they are somewhere else,” he emphasised.

He stated that if registration code was given to cyber cafés, they may mess the process up, thereby, creating crisis for JAMB.

The Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, represented by the Director of Tertiary Education, Hajia Hindatu Abdullahi, stated that “the results of large scale examinations conducted by examination bodies, such as JAMB, NECO and NABTEB, are necessary for decision making and should therefore be credible.”

She said, “Consequently, the deployment of technology is very imperative if the results must be reliable. The role of technology in education cannot be over emphasised. Electronic item banking is consequent on the use of technology for item analysis and calibration.”