…Warns faith-based institutions against hiding status
…Says undergraduates who write exam again may forfeit admission
By Adesina Wahab
As admission seekers will today begin registration for the 2026 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination, UTME, the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, JAMB, has cancelled special concession and registration hitherto allowed for people with albinism because some were using same to perpetrate malpractice.
Also, the Board has urged faith-based institutions to disclose their status from the onset, saying pretending to be secular to draw applicants and later bring forth religious rules was a sort of deception.
These were parts of the decisions arrived at weekend when management of the Board, led by the Registrar, Prof. Isaq Oloyede, met with the commissioners for education in the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, in Ikeja, Lagos.
Oloyede, who said the meeting was to review and assess the previous exercise, said despite the numerous steps taken by the examination body, some unscrupulous persons were bent on circumventing the process.
“We have stopped some concessions we gave albino candidates. This is because some are using Artificial Intelligence, AI, to manipulate the registration process to look like they are albinos because of the consideration we gave them. Last year alone, over 7,000 claimed to be albinos. We have stopped special registration procedures for albinos,’’ he said.
On the complaints from admitted candidates in some private institutions regarding religious instructions and rules, Oloyede urged the schools to declare from the onset their status.
His word: “Faith-based institutions should declare from the onset what they are, so that whoever applies there will know what he is going to meet there, but some don’t do that. They will pretend to be secular in nature but when students are now admitted, trouble will begin regarding religious instructions and injunctions.
‘’If you are a faith-based institution, say so. The law allows you to set up faith-based schools.”
On the revelation last year that the candidate with the highest score was already a 300 level student in a university, the JAMB boss noted that investigation showed that some undergraduates do write the exam to eventually start another course, but noted that some do so to help others secure admission.
“Students who are already in school but want to change courses and are applying again must declare and disclose their status. We have found out that some candidates already in school do write the examination for other candidates.
‘’Last year, the candidate who scored the highest, out of curiosity, we did a background check on him and found out that he was a 300 level student in the university. Henceforth, any candidate who is found engaging in such an act, and who failed to disclose that he is already in school but wants to change course, will be disqualified and also lose his current admission,” he added.
On admission criteria, he explained that for federal government-owned institutions, it was 45 per cent merit; 20 per cent catchment area; 20 per cent educationally disadvantaged states and the rest for others.
Oloyede said further: “Each owner or state has the right to decide what their admission criteria will be. But for states, we encourage them to make at least 10 per cent for merit, not minding where the candidates come from. This is to diversify the student population and admit egg heads from different communities.”
He took a swipe at some states setting up new universities when they had not filled their quotas in federal institutions.
On the issue of underaged candidates, he explained: “There is attestation to be signed for underaged candidates. Last year, we had about 42,000 claiming to be underaged. After evaluation and assessment of their claims, only 78 were able to meet the criteria set and got admitted to universities. We are not saying there are no talented candidates, but the figure here looks outlandish.
“For now, 16 years is the admission age and if anybody is not up to that age, he has to meet the requirement of scoring 80 per cent in the UTME and the post-UTME screening. Some people are saying there should be something that can be done to fill the gap year before they are old enough to be admitted at 16 years.
‘’Going by the country’s education policy and if people stick to the rules, most students should be close to 16 before admission year.”
How to handle the issue of underaged candidates divided the meeting, as some said the Board should create something for such candidates to get busy during the gap year.
However, Oloyede put the matter to vote and the majority gave the go ahead to the Board to continue the process of special assessment of such candidates.
The meeting noted that parents putting pressure on their children to quickly finish their education are the ones causing the trouble.
On some of the new steps taken to check exam malpractice, Oloyede said one of the steps was to stop the movement of computers from one centre to another.
“A computer that is registered in a particular centre will remain there and not transferable to another centre. Some people, because they want their centres to be accredited, would go and borrow computers from different sources and after we have thought they are qualified and accredit them, then they will be moving the computers from one place to the other,” he said.
He stated that JAMB would never post candidates to towns they did not choose, stressing that “we don’t post candidates to towns they did not choose.
‘’Name, state and other vital information of a candidate is got from the NIN they submit for registration. We don’t misspell names because we don’t tamper with that.”
Giving an update on last year’s UTME, Oloyede said 974,855 candidates had so far been admitted out of the about 1.95 million that wrote the examination.
He said over N2.4 billion had been given by the Board to institutions that did well in adhering to its rules in the last 10 years.
The meeting also voted that school where the best candidates emerge should be compensated.
On accreditation of CBT centres,Oloyede said it was done by a team comprising a university vice chancellor, rector and provost, among others, in each state of the federation.
He warned state governments against signing agreements with private promoters of CBT centres who would want to use the centres to perpetrate exam malpractice.
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