It is illegal for JAMB to assign candidates to institutions, says Oloyede as UTME/DE registration closes today
… CHAIRMAN JAMB GOVERNING BOARD MONITORS THE 2020 UTME/DE REGISTRATIONS
As registration for the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME)/Direct Entry (DE) closes today, Monday, February 17th,the Registrar, Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Prof. Is-haq Oloyede, has said that the act establishing the Board forbids it from unilaterally assigning candidates to tertiary institutions.
- Prof Oloyede*
The Registrar, according to the latest edition of JAMBulletin made available on Sunday to The State Online said it is not only illegal to do so but it is tantamount to usurping the rights of the candidates to choose which institution and programme they want to enrol in.
The clarification came on the heels of the visit of some proprietors of Innovative Enterprise Institutes (IEIs) who requested the Registrar to post candidates to their institutes owing to a dearth of candidates and low subscription to IEIs.
The proprietors, who wrote through the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) to see the Registrar, were at the Headquarters of the Board, Bwari, to hold talks with the Registrar on issues bordering on admission timetable, cutoff marks and making National Innovative Diploma (NID) as qualifications for Direct Entry (DE), among other issues.
The Registrar, while responding to their list of demands, reminded them that the decision on the sequence and conduct of the 2019/2020 Admission was resolved at the Policy Meeting with many IEIs in attendance where they opted for a much later period to conduct their admission.
Prof. Oloyede explained that it was possible to conduct all admissions simultaneously with the rich features and functionality of the Central Admissions Processing System (CAPS) but he reminded the IEIs that they had opted to wait till the other tiers would have completed their admissions before they would commence their own exercise.
The Registrar added that universities and other strata of institutions were given the opportunity to commence their admission process after the release of WAEC /NECO results, hence the commencement of all admissions in August.
On the issue of selling the 2020 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) application documents while the IEIs admission was ongoing, the Registrar reminded the delegation that the arrangement was to address their peculiarities.
He stated that the practice before he came on board was for the application documents to be sold in November but he stopped that and had moved the sale to January to allow the IEIs and other institutions conclude their admissions.
Professor Oloyede added that the commencement of the sale of application documents was simply to kick-start the arrangements for the 2020 UTME. He said, to that end, preparatory meetings with examination bodies to harmonise their examination timetables to prevent clashes had been held.
He added that the WAEC starts on the 6 April 2020, followed by NECO and NABTEB meaning that JAMB the must conduct its UTME before 6 April, 2020.
On the request to make NID diploma as an entry requirement for DE, the Registrar advised the IEIs to forward a position paper to the National Council of Education, the highest decision-making body on education matters in the country, through the Federal Ministry of Education for prompt attention.
As regards the other issues raised by the visitors, it was discovered that many of the IEIs were still not conversant with the workings of the CAPS.
To ensure that they too enjoy the abundant provisions of the automated system, the Registrar promised that if they all come together, he will dedicate a day or two for the training of the IEIs on CAPS by assigning a technical officer to take them through its rudiments in order to familiarise them with the conduct of admissions on the automated admission platform.
He also advised the IEIs to come together with a view to presenting their challenges in a more harmonious manner. Continuing, Prof. Oloyede also charged the IEIs to set realistic cutoff marks, and assured the visiting members that the Board would continue to play its role in line with its mandate. He subsequently urged the representatives of the IEIs to furnish the Board with a list of IEIs addresses and one contact person to be uploaded on the Board’s website at no cost to the IEIs declaring that it was meant to assure the public of the authenticity of their operations.
In another development, Chairman, Governing Board of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board T(JAMB), Dr. Emmanuel Aguzie Ndukwe, has visited different Professional Registration Centres (PRC) in Abia State to monitor the 2020 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME)/Direct Entry (DE) registration exercise.
- Dr Emmanuel Ndukwe, Chairman, Governing Board of JAMB ( 3rd right), interacting with candidates*
The Chairman, during the tour which took place on 6 February, 2020, commended the Abia State Coordinator, Mr. Chidebe A. Achunine, and other staff of the State Office for working tirelessly to ensure that PRCs in the state abide by the registration guidelines.
Earlier, the State Coordinator had informed the Chairman that a total of two thousand and twenty-eight (2,028) UTME candidates and seventy-six (76) DE candidates had registered at the PRCs and added that no CBT centre in the state had been indicted for registration or other forms of infractions as compared to previous years.
He equally briefed the Chairman on the good working relationship between his Office and the Abia State Command of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC). In another development, the Chairman, Dr. Ndukwe, also visited the Deputy ViceChancellor (Academic), Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, Prof. Francis Otunta, as part of the familiarisation tour. While at the institution, the Chairman and other members of his team were taken around the University CBT centre to assess its level of preparedness for the 2020 UTME.