by fabulous reports
Universities are supposed to represent the finest ideals of a given society. They produce leaders in different fields of human endeavour. It is, therefore, embarrassing that certain illegalities still occur in such supposedly hallowed institutions.
Recently, the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) accused tertiary institutions of mobilising unqualified graduates for the mandatory National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) scheme. In a letter to vice-chancellors, provosts and registrars of tertiary institutions in the country, JAMB claimed that the affected institutions had continued to admit candidates outside its Central Admissions Processing System (CAPS). What some of the institutions partly did, JAMB alleged, was to collude with candidates to falsify vital records, such as backdated year of entry and subsequent age adjustments to facilitate illegal admissions carried out before 2017, to enable participation of fake candidates in the NYSC scheme.
In the letter, JAMB explained that its recent move was aimed at curbing illegal admissions and falsification of records. “Any institution found to have admitted any candidate outside CAPS after 2020, will be made to face appropriate sanctions in addition to the forfeiture of the said admission with its legal implications,” it warned. It has also given tertiary institutions one month, starting from August 1, 2024, to disclose candidates admitted illegally before 2017. After this window, it will no longer condone or recognize any such admission given before 2017.
About 88 higher institutions are said to be involved in illegal admissions for 2022/2023 academic session. JAMB Registrar, Professor Is-haq Oloyede, named some of the universities to include the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN), the University of Abuja, Kwara State University (KWASU), National Open University (NOUN) and Ambrose Alli University. In November 2021, JAMB disclosed that between 2017 and 2020, Nigerian tertiary institutions offered 706,189 illegal admissions to candidates.
The government had reportedly granted waivers to about one million of these candidates illegally admitted between 2017 and 2020. But some of the candidates even do not have the basic qualifications and could not enjoy the waivers. Oloyede regrets that this has not stopped the institutions involved from doing it.
This presents some consequences to both the candidates and the nation’s education system. Candidates or beneficiaries of illegal admissions are particularly the worst victims as they go through different psychological trauma after graduation when they fail to obtain JAMB admission letters for their post-graduate pursuits. They find it difficult to advance in their career or to even go for the NYSC scheme.
Besides, as Oloyede had observed, the problem has damaged the image of the country. The official statistics of the number of students in our tertiary institutions are rendered inaccurate due to the illegal admissions. According to Oloyede, the Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) for tertiary education, which JAMB provides for the Federal Ministry of Education, is fed into the global databank of tertiary institutions which gives inaccurate low GER record for Nigeria.
Universities need to be very careful. The standards are already very low. Some products of our universities cannot perform simple task in their areas of specialisation. Some are not employable and find it difficult to gain admission for post-graduate courses abroad. The more we admit weak students into our schools to the detriment of qualified students, the more we weaken the standards. Our higher institutions should desist from such practices. Admission into universities should be largely by merit.
It is in the best interest of the universities to clear their names from this allegation. Although it is the statutory responsibility of JAMB to conduct entrance examinations into the tertiary institutions in the country, some stakeholders in these institutions see JAMB’s recent regulatory oversight functions as a violation of the University Autonomy Act. They see the introduction of CAPS in 2017 to ensure transparency, quality control and credibility of admissions as one of such violations. This should not be so.
We commend Professor Oloyede for the steps he has taken to sanitize our tertiary institutions. We recall the Mmesoma Ejikeme saga last year which JAMB under Oloyede handled to the satisfaction of all and sundry. Miss Ejikeme had claimed scoring 362 out of 400 marks to emerge the highest scorer in the 2023 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME). She even secured N3m scholarship from Innoson Automobile Company. Some individuals and groups rose in her defence when it later emerged that she forged her result. But JAMB stood its ground. It took time to explain the issues involved and proved beyond reasonable doubt that Miss Ejikeme actually forged her result.
JAMB under Professor Oloyede has remitted billions of naira to federal government coffers unlike his predecessors. He has proven to be upright and dedicated to his job. We recommend his style to other public institutions in the country. If other institutions are like JAMB, our country will reap bountifully from it and attain greater heights than what is currently obtainable.
