It's official: The Federal Government of Nigeria is scrapping the national Examinations Council (NECO), and divesting the powers of the ever popular Joint Admissions and Matriculations Board (JAMB) to carry out the conduct of examinations into Nigeria's tertiary institutions.
This long overdue decision is in line with government's desire to streamline the various agencies of government and reduce the cost of governance. . . something the opposition and various bodies have been clamouring for.
It is instructive to note that the National Poverty Eradication Programme (NAPEP) is in the crosshairs of the government; It's soon going to be history.
I'm not too sure about this. . . I've kind of grown fond of NAPEP. They're doing so well, though starved of funds. Just hope they know what they're doing.
Now back to JAMB. . .
Remember the Steve Oronsaye Panel Report on the reform of government agencies and ministries? Yeah, that's the one.
Good. This landmark decision is part of government's desire to adopt the recommendations of that highly criticized report.
Mr Oronsaye who was the former Head of the Civil Service of the Federation recommended the abolition of 38 agencies, merger of 52 and reversal of 14 to departments in ministries.
According to the white paper, which was drafted by a committee headed by the Attorney General of the Federation, Mohammed Adoke, the Joint Admission and Matriculations Board would be divested of the powers to conduct matriculation examinations into tertiary institutions while universities would be allowed to conduct their entrance examinations to students.
Although JAMB would not be scrapped, it would be a mere administrative structure that would set standards for minimum requirements on how the various universities would conduct entrance examinations.
A member of the committee told Vanguard newspapers that. . .
1. "JAMB will be divested of the admission provision. It will no longer conduct examinations but will be a clearing house. Every school will admit its students.
2. "NECO will be scrapped and its infrastructure will be merged with that of the West African Examination Council (WAEC).
3. "Universities will be allowed to set their standards but JAMB will set the minimum standard for admission into all tertiary institutions."
For those of you who form part of the huge mass of students who take the NECO exams as external candidates, the restructuring would require WAEC to conduct two external examinations, one in January and another in November, while still running the internal examinations for students in secondary schools. . . so. . .
What do you think?
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