By Amamchukwu Okafor
I take on Joint Admission and Matriculation Board JAMB.
JAMB is the standard University entrance examination in Nigeria. The legal instrument establishing the Board was promulgated by the Act (No. 2 of 1978) of the Federal Military Government on 13th February, 1978. It was amended and codified into Decree No. 33 of 1989, which took effect from 7th December, 1989. That’s a long time ago. We can agree that the Act needs revisiting.
JAMB has been an obstacle both to Nigerian students seeking university education and to university autonomy.
Every year JAMB administers matriculation examinations which is valid for only one year. It also limits your university choices to ONLY 3 schools.
In essence, an applicant’s JAMB score is useful only in a given year for only 3 universities.
And in reality, if you missed the first choice university, you may not be considered in the other schools and would have to retake JAMB the next year (if you wish to get a Uni education).
Sadly, there’s no clearly defined score that guarantees admission. Like IELTS Official and TOEFL®, even worse, JAMB result has a validity of one year and limited choices for schools.
JAMB effectively obscures university entrance process such that it is nearly impossible for foreign students to attend Nigerian universities. Universities in Ghana, SouthAfrica, and even Benin Republic admits students from Nigeria and other countries. Loss of revenues and absence of diversity in Nigerian universities.
But JAMB registrars have always been university #professors. Yet, they fail to radically change the system, only boastful about how much revenue JAMB raked in. But JAMB isn’t a revenue spinner. Every year JAMB declares profit that it #extorted from applicants who take the exam multiple times.
There’s so much ills that JAMB is doing and so much good it isn’t doing. At this point, I call on Change.org, Change.org Foundation and Policy Shapers who are already doing so much to fight some of the subtle institutional rigidities to join me and take on Jamb.