Twenty-two days after he was appointed Registrar/Chief Executive Officer of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Professor Is-haq Oloyede, in what looks like his first major assignment, held the first technical committee meeting on admission. MARTIN PAUL extracts salient points.
Each year the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) convenes a stakeholders meeting for the placement of suitably qualified candidates into tertiary institutions taking into consideration the vacancies available in the institutions, guidelines approved for each institution by their respective proprietors and preference expressed for the institutions and courses by the candidates.
As usual, the 2016 admissions will be as smooth as ever, but Oloyede says the only difference between this year’s admissions process and what has always been the practice, is the policy that “there should be no written post-UTME test”.
Already, this test has been banned and all efforts by university authorities, including various unions to wage government into reversing its decision, have failed.
Oloyede says “all other processes should and will be as they have always been.
The Senate or Academic Board of each institution has the prerogative of admitting candidates to their respective institutions subject of course only to National Policies which includes guidelines stipulated by the proprietors of the institutions, the 60:40 (Science/Art) ratio for conventional universities, the 80:20 (Science/Art) ratio for non-conventional universities and the 70:30 (Technology/Non-Technology) ratio for National Diploma Awarding Institutions”.
The criteria include and not limited to the “use of 2016 JAMB/UTME results printouts for all candidates, who scored 180 and above, adherence to subject combinations of various courses as specified by the Senate/Academic Board and included in the 2016 UTME brochure, adherence to the 2016 admissions quota as prescribed by the regulatory bodies namely the National Universities Commission (NUC), the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) and the National Commission for Colleges of Education (NCCE).
“For Federal Universities, the criteria stipulated by the Federal Executive Council concerning merit, catchment and educationally less developed states should also be complied with.
“In the discharge of this national assignment, it is important that we act with focus on what is beneficial to the largest number of Nigerians. We must avoid adding to the burden of the masses of our people who rightly yearn for higher education as a veritable means of active participation in public life.
“While urging us to work hard and exhibit commitment, synergy and cooperation between the Board and the institutions, I assure you all that the hands of fellowship which my predecessors have extended to the institutions would be strengthened for the advancement of National goals. My immediate predecessor, Prof. ‘Dibu Ojerinde in particular and his predecessors in general have lifted the Board to an enviable standard of international repute and we cannot afford to do less.
“It must be made, categorically, clear that the task of JAMB is coordination and not substitution of the traditional responsibilities of the Senates/Academic Boards of tertiary institutions. Consequently, no candidate must emanate from any other source (JAMB inclusive) outside the list prepared and recommended by the institutions”, Oloyede said.
