The All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) chieftain, Dr Chinedu Ekwalo, has called for scraping of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), saying it was more of money-making than placement of students.
Ekwalo made the call in an interview with News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday when he visited the party’s headquarters in Abuja to pick Expression of Interest and Nomination forms.
According to him, JAMB had become more of a revenue generating organisation than an academic channel for children to tertiary institutions.
“I want JAMB to be scrapped and the reason is because Nigerian universities put together, has a carrying capacity of 600, 000 people and every year we have no fewer than two million persons who sit for JAMB.
“Even if universities should absorb more than their capacities, there are always many who remained without admission, and this happens annually.
“JAMB, for me is just a waste of time, because when it was established in the ‘70s, its primary responsibility was to serve as a vehicle that will move our children from secondary to tertiary institutions.
“Today, the only thing the examination body does is remitting several billions of naira to the government, which ask it to start generating revenue for this nation,’’ he said
Ekwalo, who is aspirant for Anambra North Senatorial seat in the National Assembly in 2019, also called for review of educational laws of the country to accommodate the peculiarities of the society and make the system better.
He said that innovations introduced by JAMB had not in any way improved the standard of education in the country.
He also said the huge fees the university admissions body usually demanded from applicants had devastating effect on poor Nigerians who wanted to go school but lacked the means.
“We have to make Nigeria home for our people and one of the ways we can do that is to look into the education system; there is need to overhaul the system.
“This will pave way for a lot of innovations and youths will have the capacity to express their creativity and make the nation better since they are the majority,” he added.
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