SOURCE: PUNCH
I was one of those who lampooned some of the parents and candidates who protested in front of the University of Lagos against the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board’s 250 over 400 cut-off mark for the university. I was irked by the protest because I felt, rightly, that parents should encourage their children to study hard to become the best at all times. However, I took out time to investigate and ascertain the root cause of their grievances (because I saw it as odd that parents in their right frame of mind should engage in such kind of protest). Why should a very progressive minded parent protest because his or her child did not study hard to beat the requisite cut-off mark? My findings have once again given credence and support on why the Federal Government must as a matter of urgency and part of the reform programme of our tertiary education, scrap JAMB. CNTW BLW.

The exams, evaluation, records and processing departments of JAMB reek of monstrous corruption to the highest level. It is an open secret that one can purchase any high score from JAMB office in Abuja with the right cash. Most of the protesting parents are simply saying that they do not have confidence
in JAMB’s exam evaluation process. They are of the opinion that most of the candidates awarded 250 and above by JAMB do not merit those scores. Hence, they are requesting that JAMB should permit those who scored 200 and above to sit for the UNILAG Post-UTME. The parents claim that they have more confidence in the integrity and credibility of the UNILAG internal examination processes than those of JAMB. That stopping their children from sitting for the UNILAG post-UTME after they had met JAMB’s180/400 cut-off mark may deny them the opportunity of proving that most of the people who were awarded 250 and above do not actually merit them. This is very interesting. CNTW BLW

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Personally, I have always maintained that JAMB has outlived its usefulness and should be scrapped. Nigeria is the only country amongst the commonwealth nations that still retains such unwieldy university entrance admission processes. Why still retain JAMB and her inefficiencies and attendant monumental corruption when the universities are still allowed to conduct their own Post- UTME that can weed a student out if he fails the university’s exam even if he scored 400/400 in your UTME? The continued existence of JAMB is a drain in our national treasury and an encouragement of
sleaze and graft because most of the funds generated by the body through exams are not budgeted for and never accounted for. The whole process of exam evaluation and recording is also another cesspool of corruption. CNTW BLW

The continued existence of JAMB is a drain on the pockets of poor parents. It makes the whole admission process into our tertiary institutions, tenuous, stressful, very costly and prone to corrupt manipulations. The universities, colleges of education and polytechnics should be allowed to conduct their
own entrance examinations. They should also be allowed to determine the criteria that will qualify any candidate to apply to their schools as we have it in other climes. This way excellence and competition will be encouraged. JAMB, to me, is one of those vestiges and relics in our existence as a nation that aids mediocrity and backwardness. As part of the change agenda and reform of our already decaying and dilapidated education system, President Muhammadu Buhari as a matter of urgency should scrap JAMB. It is no longer useful in our education system. Dr. Nnaemeka Onyeka Obiaraeri, Ikoyi, Lagos