Ex-varsity don urges incoming education minister to review or scrap JAMB

bibing

A FORMER university lecturer, Dr. Adebayo Oyeyemi, has advised the in-coming Minister of Education to scrap the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) as it has outlived its usefulness.

Speaking in Lagos with some education reporters, Oyeyemi stated that JAMB has failed since it can no longer place students who passed its examinations into universities of their choices without them sitting for other examinations conducted by those universities.

Oyeyemi, Proprietor of Good Shepherd Group of Schools, Meiran, Lagos and a Senior Pastor in Deeper Life Bible Church, said further: “Alternatively, let the in-coming minister critically review JAMB if it must remain. If a student passes JAMB examination and could not secure admission that year, he should be allowed to tender it for admission the following years.

“Also, JAMB examination results should have a lifespan of about five years.”

Urging the minister to urgently look into the nation’s new education curriculum to realise its full potential, the former university don, who said at present tertiary institutions, particularly universities, would need to synchronise their requirements to meet their demand, expressed disappointment that some subject combinations in the curriculum are in contrast with those for admission into universities, which are still using old requirements.

He noted: “University requirements are different from what we have in the new curriculum. We have schools that follow this curriculum but at the end, their children do not secure admission into universities.

“For instance, if a child is going to study Engineering, the curriculum specifies that that child does not need Chemistry or Biology.

“In the curriculum, there are five compulsory subjects -English, Mathematics, Trade, Civic and Computer. Then a student picks three or four subjects from his area of specialisation, and then one elective from the four divisions -Humanities, Business, Science, as well as Mathematics.

“Again, government removed Economics from Commercials and put it under Humanities but universities are still requiring Economics for commercial students.

“Some schools started doing Economics when JAMB recommended Economics in the UTME and many of those students failed woefully.”

Identifying curriculum, infrastructure and manpower as the three major components of a school system, Oyeyemi further kicked against the scenario where there is dearth of facilities in most public schools nationwide to meet recommendations in the curriculum.

He attributed the development to policy somersaults and default of the policy formulators to take a cue from realities before coming up with the policy, resulting into complexities and often inability of schools to interpret such policy.

“It’s not just about copying what happens in United Kingdom (UK) or United States (U.S.) but customising and communicating it. It’s like we are gambling with the lives of these children. To worsen matters, there is no document to guide the curriculum in case it needs some adjustment. I am suggesting that all ideas should be synchronised and fused into a single document”, he added.

Source: TheGuardian