By Newsie Events Media:
The Senate Committee on Basic Education has said it has commenced amending the law establishing the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), to set 18 years as age for candidates willing to participate in Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).
This was disclosed on Monday by the Vice Chairman of the committee, Senator Akon Eyakenyi, during the committee’s oversight visit to JAMB.
According to the committee, age has a lot to do with learning ability, particularly in higher institutions.
Senator Akon Eyakenyi noted that education is very important in the development of the country stressing that the sector deserves to be given much attention.
The Senator described the JAMB as a bridge between the secondary and the university, stressing that the agency was a necessary vehicle for the delivery of quality and standard education in Nigeria.
Senator Eyakenyi said: “We have the responsibilities of making laws and legislate. We have identified two major areas that we need to go into the process of amending the act establishing JAMB. That’s the area of support we will give.”
“If the products from the secondary schools are not properly catered for to be assessed before turning them into the university definitely you will have a problem,” she said.
The Committee insisted that candidates should neither sit nor be admitted into the university below the age of 18, as age has a lot to do with learning ability.
Responding, JAMB Registrar, Prof. Oloyede, told the Committee that the Board does not have powers to disqualify any candidate on the basis of age shifting the responsibility to individual institutions.
“Individual institutions can decide on who to admit or not based on age or any other criteria. It is the case with University of Ibadan which does not admit candidates below 16 years,” he said.
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