JAMB remits N3.5 billion to Nigerian government, ASUU official kicks

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) stated it has remitted N3.51 billion to the federal govt as functioning surplus for 2021.

A assertion issued by the examination body and signed by its head of general public affairs and protocol device, Fabian Benjamin, famous that the remittance “is in line with Prof. Is-haq Oloyede’s avowed dedication to prudent management of public sources.”

But a prime official of the Educational Team Union of Universities (ASUU), the umbrella organisation for all university lecturers in Nigeria, has described the JAMB’s ‘conduct’ as a reflection of the ‘exploitation’ of the people by the Nigerian authorities.

The coordinator of the Lagos zone of ASUU, Laja Odukoya, who spoke with our reporter on the cell phone on Wednesday right after JAMB’s announcement, explained “Nigerians have to see guiding the smokescreen of what is regarded as effectiveness by the examination entire body, and acquire it for what is actually called, exploitation”.

JAMB spokesperson, Mr Benjamin, when attained, declined reviews on Mr Odukoya’s assertions.

Remittance

JAMB said due to the fact 2016 when the new management of the assessment physique commenced to remit extra money to the govt, the observe has ongoing till date.

The physique explained the development has also led to the reduction in the total charged for the registration of its evaluation from N5,000 to N3,500. It mentioned by the reduction by itself, much more than N3 billion has been saved for the parents and guardians who pay out for the candidates that sit its evaluation.

The assertion reads in component “This determination to probity coupled with the adoption of worldwide most effective tactics make for price-powerful operational processes and attendant discounts to produce people humongous remittances to authorities coffers. This has been the norm alternatively than the exception in the previous 6 decades commencing from 2016 when he (Oloyede) remitted the whopping sum of N7 billion and repeated the very same in subsequent many years.

“It is pertinent to be aware that a person of the direct advantages of the sustained remittances by the Prof. Oloyede-led administration manifested in the reduction of the expense of the software files (UTME and DE) by candidates from N5000 to N3500 in 2018 by President Muhammadu Buhari. This singular act has ensured the annual transfer of about N3b to the pockets of dad and mom and guardians of candidates as a consequence of the slash in the selling price of UTME kinds.”

It explained JAMB below the current leadership would continue to prune down the value of governance and “release resources for other needy nationwide prioritised parts.”

ASUU kicks

But in his response, the ASUU zonal coordinator said what JAMB is undertaking “is to exploit the inadequate Nigerians for the reward of federal government officials”, who he accused of currently being reckless in investing.

Mr Odukoya reported, “The question we must talk to is, the place is the cash coming from? And where is it heading? The money is similarly not heading again to the establishments that involve it for infrastructural upgrade to make them globally aggressive, and as a make-up for the exploited Nigerian students. It ought to have been pardonable if the income is coming again to the school process but somewhat, the funds is getting ploughed back again to the governing administration to fund the recklessness and profligacy of the government officials and functionaries.

“And it is so sad that many Nigerians are praising this conduct of JAMB and tagging it as a excellent efficiency. But I consider the persons require to sit well and look carefully at the rear of the smokescreen of this matter known as functionality. It is mass exploitation in disguise.”

Requested if he would counsel that the unified tertiary matriculation assessment (UTME) which JAMB conducts should be conducted for absolutely free to steer clear of the remittance, Mr Odulaja mentioned he would relatively advise that “what should be billed really should only be average to cater for what the assessment entire body needs”.

“There really should be a value for the assessment but it should really basically be the charge of what the assessment body is undertaking. You cannot be building earnings from the bad persons who are struggling to get instruction, and are not even confident of possibilities immediately after they wrestle to be educated. Education need to be witnessed as a community great and that is why we should battle from its commercialisation in any sort. The advantage of schooling does not occur to the learners, it comes to the modern society simply because we are in an age of understanding financial state,” Mr Odulaja, a lecturer at the University of Lagos (UNILAG), Akoka, said.