The Senate today extended the validity period of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) to three years against the present one year.
The extension was sequel to the amendment of the Act establishing the JAMB and it scaled through third reading today.
Also, the Senate has finally declared the Post-Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (Post-UTME) by the Universities, as illegal and unconstitutional, just as the upper chambers said that with the decision, the question of who was in charge of admission has been answered.
Deliberating on the report by the Senator Barau Jibrin led Committee on Tertiary Institutions and TETFUND, of a Bill for an Act to amend the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, Act and other matters connected thereof, 2016( SB.245), the senators amended subsection (a) of section 5 to read as follows: ” 5(b) the Matriculations Examinations conducted by the Board shall be the sole examinations required for admission and entry into all Universities, ‘ Polytechnics (by whatever name called) and Colleges of Education (by whateVer name called), to the exclusion of any other institution or body.”
With the passage of the bill, it would now require the president to assent to the bill where it would then become a law and with the bill coming from the Executive, President Muhammadu Buhari may not delay in the signing of the bill into law.
It would be recalled that on Wednesday 1st June 2016, the Senate of Federal Republic at its sitting read JAMB Amendment bill 2016 (SB.245) the second time and referred same to the Committee on Tertiary Institutions and Tetfund.
The purpose of the bill was to amend the JAMB Act to increase validity period of JAMB examination from one academic year to three academic years. The Committee in considering the Bill, made reference to Votes and Proceedings and Verbatim reports of Wednesday 2nd March 2016, particularly to the contributions of Members regarding the financial hardship experienced yearly by parents/guardians in Sponsoring the candidates for JAMB examination.
On the three year validity of the result, the report said, “Validity of Section 6: (i) Any examination conducted by the Board pursuant to the powers conferred by this Act shall be valid for a period of three academic years from the date of the examination.
