President Muhammadu Buhari
President Muhammadu Buhari, on Wednesday, November 28, 2018, announced the reduction of the cost of the forms for Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME); Senior School Certificate Examination (SSCE) and Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE).
This was contained in a statement by his Special Assistant on Digital/Media Communications, Tolu Ogunlesi, who said the price reduction will take effect in January 2019.
While the UTME is conducted by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), both the SSCE and BECE are conducted by the National Examinations Council (NECO). The statement did not make mention of the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) that is also conducted in the country and it is not clear whether the registration fee reductions affect it too.
With this development, the price of JAMB UTME will be reduced from N5,000 to N3,500, NECO will drop from N11,350 to N9,850.
Champion Scholar recalls that there have been agitations within the education sector over the past year seeking the particular reduction of fees charged in the process of applying for higher education through JAMB.
Since JAMB Registrar, Ishaq Oloyede got appointed in August 2016, there have been some radical increase in the announced income generated by the agency, making critics wonder if it were an income generating agency of the government.
After the 2017 and 2018 UTME, Oloyede had announced that JAMB under him, had generated some N9bn and was widely commended for this even by the government.
It is not clear, however, whether the fee reduction also affects other items for which JAMB charges candidates, which some agitators have described as ‘extortionist’.
