Allow JAMB to fix, pay staff salaries, registrar tells wages commission

The Registrar of Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, (JAMB),  Prof Ishaq Oloyede, has called on the Salaries and Wages Commission to allow the organisation to independently fix and pay salaries to members of its staff.

He said doing so would enable the examination body to pay salaries that are appropriate and commensurable to workers’ efforts and also sanction those who err.

Oloyede made this call at a public forum in Abuja and quoted by a weekly bulletin of the organisation published on Monday, arguing that such practice is what is applicable to some federal government agencies in education sector citing the Tertiary Education Trust Fund(TETFund) and the Universal Basic Education Commission(UBEC) as references.

It will be recalled that JAMB which charges N3,000 exam registration fee per candidate makes billion of naira yearly on the conduct of the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examinations(UTME) which an average of 1.85 million candidates sit yearly.

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The registrar, while reiterating the commitment of the 40-year-old board to deliver on its mandates as expected, he declared that the organisation had the capacity to pay good salaries to its workers and also still support government through remittances to the federal treasury.

He pointed out that agencies such as JAMB elsewhere around the world are self-funded of their day-to-day operations and not depending on government subventions.

“So, JAMB is capable to do the same,” he emphasised.

Oloyede, however, promised that JAMB would continue to introduce innovations that would enhance the credibility of its exams and the products coming out of tertiary schools in the country.