EXTRA: JAMB has been jamming the future of our young people, says Shehu Sani

Shehu Sani, senator representing Kaduna central, says the Joint Admission Matriculation Board (JAMB) has been “literally jamming the future” of young Nigerians.

Sani said this on Tuesday while contributing to a motion on the “need to revisit the regulatory conflict between JAMB and universities in offering admission in Nigeria” which was sponsored by Umaru Kurfi, senator representing Katsina central.

The senator said after students write JAMB, they go for post-unified matriculation examination (UME), “which becomes a series of hardship and suffering”.

He said there was a need to simplify the process to which students get into universities.

“JAMB has been literally jamming the future of our young people, in the very sense that there has been a lot of impediments that has seriously affected their ability to get into the university,” he said.

“But in all honesty, this motion brings to spot light solutions that if supported by this senate will go a long way.Our concern is that after JAMB comes Post-UME that becomes a series of hardship and suffering in the way people get into the universities.

“The problem we face here is peculiar to us, it is easier for a Nigerian to secure admission outside the country than it is here. Why should that be so? I think in this era where we are trying to do everything possible to conserve our foreign exchange, there is a the need to simplify the process in which young people get admission into our universities.”

Earlier, Kurfi who moved the motion said though the post-UME policy was introduced to remedy to the decay in the country’s educational system, it had been an “outcry of extortion from candidates”.

“JAMB began to suffer progressive denudation shortly after its inception as some universities admitted students outside the list sent by JAMB, and rejecting candidates with admission letters from JAMB on the ground that they had to comply with their own internal quota and catchment calculation, coupled with the issue of malpractices that plagued JAMB examinations,” he said.

“This new development was aimed at addressing the problem of student quality, it reintroduced and entrenched many of the problems it sought to eliminate through JAMB.

“The integrity of the post -UME examination is open to question as the pecuniary motive of the respective institutions comes so visibly to the fore that there is little pretence about maximising the income flows through this internal examination.”

The senate resolved to invite Adamu Adamu, minister of education, Is-haq Oloyede, registrar of JAMB, and other stakeholders to a meeting to address the issue.