TheCable

The house of representatives has urged the federal ministry of education to slash the cost of Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) application forms.

The form is currently being sold at N5000.

The call was sequel to a motion introduced during plenary on Thursday by James Faleke, a lawmaker from Lagos.

Faleke said by remitting N7.8 billion to the federal government as proceeds from sales of Unified Tertiary Examinations (UTME) application forms in 2017, JAMB has become a “revenue generating agency”.

He said the N7.8 billion excludes revenue from the sale of ‘change of course’ and ‘change of university’ forms “at the rate of N2,500 each”.

The lawmaker said the high cost of the forms “brings untold hardship” to Nigerians, saying JAMB was not set up for “profit-making”, but to promote educational development in the country.

“The proliferation of universities to 120, 83 Polytechnics, 82 Colleges of Education and other tertiary institutions under JAMB purview is portraying it as a profit-making venture,” Faleke said.

Hassan Saleh, a lawmaker from Benue state, supported Faleke’s stance, saying he spends a “huge” sum of money to buy JAMB forms for students in his constituency yearly.

Zakari Mohammed, a Kwara state lawmaker, cautioned his colleagues on fixing a specific fee for JAMB to charge without knowing the exact administrative cost for organising the examination.

He said to reduce the cost of organising the computer-based test (CBT), JAMB should partner with a government agency such as the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to take advantage of the internet broadband instead of using private mobile operators.

Thereafter, the house urged the federal ministry of education to review downwards the N7,500 fee for the forms.

The lawmakers also urged the ministry to ensure that the cost of the other ancillary forms for changes “must be free or at the very barest minimum of N500″.