Is the new JAMB policy good or bad for the Nigerian student?

The House of Assembly wants your JAMB results to be valid for 3 years. Some think it's dangerous.

A new directive from the House of Assembly has now increased the validity of a JAMB result from one year to three years.

While many see this as a welcome development, an Associate Professor thinks it's a bad idea.

This is Oluyombo Onafowokan, a Senior Lecturer a Senior Lecturer of the School of Management & Social Sciences at the Pan Atlantic University.

play

When he spoke with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), saying;

“’I think the new policy will also create room for redundancy since they know that their JAMB result could be used to enter the university for three years.’

He believes this would negatively affect the educational systemof the country.

Erm, we have a problem with this argument.

Let's talk about Sandra.

playLet's pretend this is Sarah preparing for JAMB

Sandra is writing JAMB for the first time. She worked hard, like real hard for this and it paid off with good grades. 254 to be precise.

Now, for some reason, Sandra doesn't get into University this year. Let's forget about whether she didn't have money to process her admission or because she had some issues with her WAEC results.

The point is, by the end of the year, Sandra's JAMB hard work becomes useless, literally.

And Sandra is not alone. Many students don't make it into tertiary institutions because the schools are not equipped to take that many students.

There's a new policy that says Sandra's hard work can suffice for three years. That means Sandra can work hard on her JAMB this year, and worry about everything else that would help her get into any tertiary institution. If not this year, then next year.

Is this bad for Sandra? Nope. In fact, this new policy is a great idea for Sandra. Not only does it reduce her workload, it also saves money for her or her guardians.

Let's face it, school doesn't have to be a chore.

So while Oluyombo Onafowokan might be like, "no no no, it's bad for Nigerian students", Sandra is probably like "great idea!"