By Olamide Iwala

President of the National Association of Proprietors of Private Schools (NAPPS), Mr. Yomi Otubela, has called on the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) to consider conducting its examination on a quarterly basis rather than the current annual schedule.

Otubela made the appeal while speaking on a television programme, Beyond the Headlines, on TVC News over the weekend.

He maintained that the present practice where students wait for an entire year before taking another shot at gaining admission into tertiary institutions was no longer sustainable in the modern age.

He argued that introducing multiple JAMB sittings in a year, preferably three times, would ease the pressure on students and create more flexible opportunities for university admissions.

According to him, “We just have to re-dig the whole system and see what can be removed from what we have been doing for the past ten to fifteen years. We must do it better to create opportunities for students and also remove the pressure that is hitherto attached to writing JAMB examination.”

The NAPPS President stressed the need for urgent reform in the education system to accommodate more dynamic and student-friendly assessment methods.

He lamented the emotional and academic toll the annual JAMB schedule takes on students.

Otubela also expressed concern over students’ dwindling interest in academics, revealing that rekindling their focus on studies has been an uphill task for school proprietors and teachers alike.

“It has been a very hard task for us to get the students’ attention back to class and I pray it doesn’t affect their performances during the ongoing Senior School Certificate Examination being conducted by the West African Examination Council (WAEC),” he lamented.

He appealed to education stakeholders to rally support for policies that ease students’ academic burdens and improve their chances of progressing in their educational pursuits.