•UTME candidates
Again, the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, JAMB, has said it would not offer admission to candidates below the age of 16 years in its 2024/2025 admission session.
The board which vowed to enforce the directive of the Minister of Education, Prof. Tahir Mamman that candidates below the age of 16 should not be admitted into tertiary institutions, especially universities, advised candidates below the required age not to think of admission this year, reports Sunday Vanguard.
This is as the board noted that in the 2025 admission session, only candidates that attained the age of 18 would be considered for admission in line with the directive of the minister during the 2024 National Policy Meeting.
The board reiterated its position at a press conference at its national headquarters, in Bwari, Abuja today.
Speaking on behalf of the registrar, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, JAMB’s Public Communication Advisor, Fabian Benjamin, said: “For the 2024 admission cycle, candidates who will be at least 16 years old at the time of admission will be considered eligible.
“This decision follows the directive from the Chairman of the 2024 tertiary admission policy meeting, who is also the Honourable Minister of Education, Prof. Tahir Mamman, SAN, that the extant policy of 6-3-3-4 be enforced only from 2025 session.”
According to him, “The alarming avalanche of obviously false affidavits and upsurge of doctored upward age-adjustments on NIN slips being submitted to JAMB to upgrade recorded age is dangerous, inimical and unnecessary.”
“Only those below 16 would not and should not be admitted in accordance with the decision of the 2024 Policy Meeting,” he added.
He also said the board “will no longer entertain absorption of illegal admissions through the window of Condonement of Illegal Admissions without Registration number”.
He spoke further: “This window which is used to absorb, for the candidates’ sake, illegal admissions that were conducted prior to 2017. It would be recalled that CAPS was introduced,in 2017 to ensure accuracy, records, transparency, accountability, fairness, and equity in admission into tertiary institutions in Nigeria.
The window (for mop-up of pre 2017 unofficial/unregistered admission) has been on now for 7 years and it is now being abused.
“The Board’s position is informed by the discovery of widespread and unwholesome practice whereby some institutions were colluding with candidates to falsify vital details, such as, backdated year of entry and subsequent age-adjustments, to utilise certificates of genuine candidates with similar names to facilitate illegal admissions to enable participation of fake candidates in the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) scheme.
“Recent worse discoveries made it imperative for the Board to speak out to save the integrity of the education system.
In the same vein, the attention of the Board has also been drawn to the predilection of some institutions to admit candidates outside the approved Central Admissions Processing System (CAPS) platform and process such through the condonement of illegal admissions window to accord legitimacy.”
Fabian explained that in order to close this abused window, the Board has decided that, “All institutions should now (or never) disclose all candidates illegally- admitted prior to 2017 whose records are in their system within the next one month beginning from 1st August, 2024; and any admission purportedly given prior to 2017 will no longer be recognised or condoned unless disclosed within this one-month window.”
To this end, he said, “Institutions are advised to comply with this directive as there will not be any further condonement of hitherto unrecorded candidates who did not even register with JAMB not to talk of sitting for any entrance examination.”
“This move is aimed at curbing illegal admissions and falsification of records, while ensuring compliance with the provisions of CAPS,” he added.
Describing Daily Part Time Programme in some universities as an absurdity, he said: ”A recent and particularly egregious example of this is the advertisement placed by Adeseun Ogundoyin Polytechnic, Eruwa, in Oyo State, published in the Tribune on Wednesday, July 31, 2024, inviting candidates to apply for its two-year Daily Part Time (DPT) programme.”
“It is crucial to clarify that no such programmes are approved by National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) nor by National Universities Commission (NUC). Both are also alien to the education system in Nigeria. They are fraudulent devices to side-line quality, approved quota for full time admission, falsify records and consequently, rake illegitimate income and derail the ambition and career of innocent (and some equally crooked) candidates. The candidates with zero or abysmally low UTME score are rationally attracted to such contraption which would lead to nowhere.
“Part-time programmes are strictly regulated, allowing institutions to admit only up to 150% of the approved full-time capacity. However, some institutions have been found to admit an excessive number of candidates through this unrecognized DPT programme, merging them with full-time students in classrooms and purporting to graduate them at the same time with full time students.
“This practice undermines the integrity of our educational system under the guise of revenue generation.
“We strongly advise candidates seeking admission to be cautious of such programmes and avoid them, as they are not recognized and will not be tolerated under any regularization or condoment.
Part-time programmes, by definition and regulation, are conducted on a part-time basis and are distinct from full-time programmes.
“Institutions, with such advertisement particularly Adeseun Ogundoyin Polytechnic, are hereby directed to retract this misleading advertisement immediately. Failure to comply will result in severe sanctions.
“We urge all candidates to pursue education through legitimate and recognized educational pathways.
“Be reminded of the previous futile requests from candidates enrolled on such programmes to be mobilised for the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) scheme. The program is fundamentally flawed,” he said.
