Chairman wants UTME to be cancelled

The National Chairman of the Education Reformers Association of Nigeria (NRAN) Dr Femi Oyewole, has called for the cancellation of the JAMB-Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination conducted between February 27 and March 17 this year.

Speaking at a seminar organised by NRAN in Lagos, Oyewole said thousands of candidates who would have secured admissions into various higher institutions this year would be denied of such opportunities if the examination remains valid.

Explaining that he has no problem with the UTME exercise overall, he said, “This one conducted by JAMB was not only poorly organised but shows some of their staff were unskilled and deficient in carrying out the project.”

In view of the development, Oyewole said NRAN would be heading to the National Assembly next week to challenge the exam and persuade the lawmakers not only to cancel it, but to also move a motion for JAMB dissolution.

“JAMB is no more relevant to our education system, as it was in our time. As an educationist and a cleric, I feel bad seeing JAMB as a mere extortionist body to candidates and their parents. Let every higher institution conduct its own entrance examinations, as it once was before JAMB,” he stressed.

Oyewole said further: “The forthcoming debate (by the National Assembly) that JAMB results should have a lifespan of three years during which a candidate could tender such for admission into higher institutions, is unnecessary. The right thing is for JAMB to be dissolved; the board’s performance is getting poorer every year and has become a cog in the wheel of the nation’s education progress.”