JAMB, make these changes to your operations

The incessant poor performance of students in different examinations is an enormous challenge that demands the intervention of different professionals from different fields. The causes of their failure range from students’ attitude to parental failure.

However, it is disheartening when an examination body contributes directly or indirectly to students’ non-performance.

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has made some changes to its operations in Nigeria which, in my opinion, have not really gone down well with the students, their parents and their teachers.

The changes in their modus operandi include the onerous mode of registration which has caused psychological maladjustment to a number of applicants; abrupt change in the syllabus (an instance is Last Days at Forcados High School to In-Dependence), and the period of the examination which, to an extent, clashes with other examinations such as West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE).

In order to ameliorate the problems, I, therefore, suggest the following. One, necessary information should be made available to applicants at the point of purchasing the PIN, not after completing the registration, so as to give them a sense of direction.

Two, applicants should be aware of any change in the syllabus, if there will be any, at least three months before the examinations. This is to allow them to be well-prepared by their teachers.

The period of the examinations should not, by any means, clash with one another since those who are awaiting results have been allowed to sit the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).

I strongly believe that if those suggestions are taken into consideration, the operations of the body will be improved upon and there will be reduction in the low performance in the examination.

Ola Peter

Ibadan