House of Representatives, on Wednesday, asked the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board to extend the validity of the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination results to three years.
The House also urged JAMB to conduct UTME at least twice a year.
At present, the result of the UTME exam conducted by JAMB is valid for only one year.
Candidates who fail to secure admission for that year are expected to take the exam the following year to realise their quest for tertiary education.
But the lawmaker representing Ekiti North 1 Federal constituency, Akin Rotimi, who moved the motion on Wednesday, asked JAMB to “rethink” the current arrangement in order to meet global standard.
According to the lawmaker, such a move “would bring immediate relief to students and their parents/sponsors, who bear the burden of paying every year for the exam, as well as give candidates multiple windows to sit for the exam in a year”.
Rotimi also argued that there is nothing in the extant act establishing JAMB that prevents the Board from immediately implementing the resolutions of the House on the subject.
The lawmaker said in a statement that the House also adopted a motion seeking the establishment of an ad-hoc committee to implement the resolution of the House.
“In addition to passing my motion, the honourable house also passed a motion for an additional prayer moved by Hon. Olumide Osoba, establishing an ad-hoc committee of the house to liaise with the authorities of JAMB and the ministry of education to ensure the resolution is expeditiously carried out,” the statement reads.
Recall that a member of the All Progressives Congress from Oyo State, Tolulope Akande-Sadipe, had moved a similar bill during the 9th Assembly.
But the bill, which sought extension of UTME results’ validity to four years, got stalled after its second reading.