A member of the House of Representatives, Tolulope Akande-Sadipe, and Speak Out Africa, a non-governmental organisation, have reinforced the need for the immediate passage of the pending bill on the validity of the result of tge United Tertiary Matriculation Examination, UTME, by the 10th Assembly without further delay.
This came to the fore during an online seminar, held on Monday, where the lawmaker argued that the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board, JAMB, should not be a revenue generating agency for the government.
Arguing further that UTME, supervised by JAMB, should not be an examination that will be conducted every year, the lawmaker, who represents Oluyole federal constituency at the lower chamber if the National Assembly reiterated that JAMB should not be assessed on the amount of revenue generated to the coffers of the Federal Government, rather it should be assessed by the quality of the examination it conducts.
Akande-Sadipe said that after laying the amendment on the bill at the floor of the House, and it is passed for an assent by the President, UTME results will have a validity of three years.
The Bill, according to Akande-Sadipe, seeks to increase the validity of results of UTME from one year to five years. However, it has been reduced to three years.
Comoaring the UTME with other examinations across the globe, Akande-Sadipe noted that the tenures/validity of the results of other internationally recognized examinations last up to between two and five years.
She referred participants to examinations of international standards such as GMAT, GRE, IELTS, TETOFL, SAT, MCAT, PTE, and USMLE.
The Oluyole federal constituency representative said that she is passionate about the bill, adding that many are victims of the JAMB yearly tests.
Akande-Sadipe argued further that a student who passes UTME should not sit for the examination repeatedly, rather the result should be valid for about three years.
Her words: “I am not asking that the examination tenure to be extended in cases where people fail. I am asking that it should be extended when people pass.
“In Nigeria, every year you take UTME and you don’t get into the university, you have to repeat UTME. Why?”
She revealed tha “168,613 students scored 200 and above in the 2021 UTME; 236,936 scored 190 and above in 2022; and 327,624 scored 180 in 2023, but less than 100,000 students got admitted into tertiary institutions. Of the 600,000 eligible applicants, only about 100,000 representing 16.67 per cent of candidates got their admission uploaded on the Central Admission Processing System, CAPS.”
She added, “I sponsored the bill on March 16, 2022, on the floor of the House of Representatives, but because of the magnitude of bills that go to the floor of the House, the bill has gotten to the committee level and we are almost there.
“I pray the bill becomes a reality. If it becomes a reality, it will take away a lot of hardship away from many homes.”
Akande-Sadipe said that some of the arguments against the bill include that JAMB is a revenue generating agency; disguised unemployment and the dichotomy between achievement test and aptitude test.
However, she said that UTME should be a test to assess one’s readiness to go to the university, adding that a candidate’s readiness should not change after attempting and passing it, once.
Speaking on behalf of participants, the convener, Speak-Out Africa, Ms. Agwu Blessing Newest, commended Akande-Sadipe for championing a course that will be of benefit to the less-privileged in the society.
The NGO described Akande-Sadipe as an instrument championing a good course for poor Nigerian students, who have been victims of yearly UTME examinations.
