House Urges FG to Reverse Directive on Non-Agric Courses in Varsities

Mandates JAMB to extend registration date
James Emejo in Abuja
The House of Representatives yesterday called on the federal government to reverse the presidential directive issued to the three specialised Universities of Agriculture to scale down and gradually wind down non-agricultural programmes.

It also called on the Federal Ministries of Education and Agriculture and Rural Development to immediately halt the implementation of the directive pending a comprehensive appraisal of the rationale behind the directive by stakeholders.

Following a motion sponsored by Hon. Sam Onuigbo (Abia, PDP), the lawmakers further urged the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) to stop action on the delisting of non-agricultural courses of Management Sciences at the Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, Abia State to enable candidates to continue to enroll in those courses in the forthcoming matriculation examinations pending the resolution of the matter.

To this effect, the House further approved the setting up of an ad-hoc committee to investigate the scenario and report back in two weeks for further legislative action.

Onuigbo had argued that the synergy between core and non-core agricultural programmes has universal appeal as several countries across the world have Universities of Agriculture that offer programmes in agriculture and allied subjects including Alabama Agricultural and Mechanical University, South China University, University of Agriculture Peshawar, Pakistan, Kuban State Agrarian University, Russia, Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, Kenya, among others.

He told THISDAY only the National Universities Commission (NUC), as apex regulatory body has the power to approve and disapprove of programmes offered by the universities and wondered why due process was sidelined while the federal government, by a stroke of pen decided to cancel the programmes duly approved by the NUC.

Meanwhile, the House yesterday also mandated the Committee on Tertiary Education and Services to direct the JAMB to extend the one month deadline by at least another month for the registration of candidates for the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) in order to create more space for prospective applicants.

Following a motion by Hon. Danburam Abubakar Nuhu, need to extend the UTME registration and exercise of safety measures during the examinations by JAMB. The House also urged the examiner to deploy safety equipment at each center to forestall any incidentof stampede due to overcrowding.
It specifically directed JAMB to specify the requirements including safety measures, which qualify any center to participate in the conduct of UTME Computer Based Test.

The House noted that in the 2016 UTME exercise, about 1.6 million applicants registered out of which about 1million passed while the 2017 exercise might reach two million across the country given the growing number of applicants.
It added that the 2017 registration for the UTME is ongoing and JAMB has given one month deadline for the completion of the registration by the huge number of prospective candidates across the country.

However, the lawmakers argued that some of the approved centers are registering 250 applicants at a time and most of them are not spacious and do not have adequate number of computers and computers, some of which have naked wires exposed and are haphazardly arranged on ordinary planks, thus lacking in safety requirement in case of an emergency.