Stories from Fred Ezeh, Abuja
Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, has described the notion that the capacity of Nigerian universities was far below the number of candidates that qualify for admission in a particular academic year as untrue.
The JAMB helmsman thus challenged the agencies that regularly churn out such figures to justify them or quit misinforming Nigerians and inciting them against the board.
Oloyede, on the sidelines of the 2016 Higher Education Summit in Abuja on Monday, said: “The fact that 1.5 million candidates sat for JAMB exams in a particular year does not translate to same figure qualifying for admission. It is only those with the requisite 180 cut-off marks, as stipulated by the admission guidelines, that would be considered. Even among the candidates that scored 180, a significant number of them might not have five credits required for varsity admission,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Minister of State for Education, Prof. Anthony Anwuka, has mandated JAMB to, henceforth, publish the full list of unutilised admission slots into all tertiary institutions on a course-by-course basis at the end of the first leg of the admission process, to enable candidates and parents take full advantage of existing admission vacancies in institutions where they exist.
The minister stressed that the transparency would prevent a situation where some institutions have more than the number of students they need, while others struggle to fill their quota. He, however, advised parents not to keep their wards at home for having not secured admission into a particular institution or course of their choice, but to have them in school while they await admission into their school and courses of choice.