2006 admissions: 806,489 JAMB candidates know fate soon
… As varsities begin post-UME test
By GABRIEL DIKE
Tuesday, September 19, 2006

About 806,489 candidates seeking admissions into the nation’s 76 universities in the 2006/2007 academic session would soon know their fate following the conclusion of a crucial meeting in Abuja over the exercise and the conduct of the post-UME test by the universities to select the applicants.

Declaring open the eight Joint Consultative Meeting of the Policy Committee on Admissions into degree awaiting institutions, Education Minister, Dr. Obiageli Ezekwesili, commended JAMB for its foresight in evolving the forum to discuss the plans and modalities to kickstart the 2006/2007 admission exercise.

Dr. Ezekwesili told the gathering that the meeting would provide the medium for frank and proper deliberations on admission matters even as she urged JAMB and the universities to cooperate and ensure the realization of their common objectives.
She described the outcome of the UME as a true reflection of the performance of the candidates especially taking into consideration the effort of JAMB in ensuring that the sanctity of the examination was not compromised including the administration of the UME.
Also speaking, JAMB Registrar, Professor Bello Salim, acknowledged that the problem of lack of uniformity of academic calendars among the tertiary institutions has continued to disturb the activities of the board in particular and the nation’s educational system.

Professor Salim said the comprehensive results of candidates that sat for the 2006 UME on printout have been dispatched, saying a compact discs would be installed in the universities computer systems to check admissions malpractice and checkmate the antics of dubious candidates who are in the habit of presenting fake results to the universities.

According to him, the non-compliance and non-adherence to the laws and guidelines on admission matters by some universities is becoming a major problem in the system and observed that this is peculiar with private universities.

The JAMB boss told the stakeholders that the post-UME test has been mired in controversies and complaints that have to do with disregard for government guidelines on the exercise. He said the pre-registration screening as conducted by some institutions and the use to which the results emerging from it were put, runs contrary to the enabling law of the board.

“It is the board’s belief that all selections procedures should be empirically based, with each applicant evaluated on standardized criteria such that the outcome of the screening exercise can be used to explain why admission is offered or denied,” Salim stressed.

Results of the Universities Matriculation Examination (UME) were released on July 7 with JAMB withholding results of 108,769 candidates for examination irregularities.
According to a document made available to Daily Sun, 15 visually impaired candidates and seven prison inmates at the Ikoyi Prison sat for the zone UME and are among those to be considered for admissions.
The statistics from JAMB revealed that 484,400 male candidates subscribed to various courses in the degree-awarding institutions, while 321,689 female applicants applied representing 39.91 per cent of the total candidates seeking for admission to pursue first degree programmes.

A breakdown of application by faculty for candidates seeking placement into the universities showed that Social Sciences recorded the highest with 172,387 applicants, followed by Medicine with 144,583, Engineering has 121,582 applicants while the number of candidates for Administration is 118,085.
Others are Sciences with 70,994 candidates, Law 45,855, Arts 43,986, Education recorded 43,986 and Agriculture Faculty had the least of applicants with 8,196.

Further statistics of applicants seeking admissions for the 2006/2007 session revealed that Imo State maintained her lead with the highest candidates of 83,895, Edo 57,754, Anambra 57,607, Delta 54,522, Abia 39,054 and Akwa Ibom recorded 36,054.

While the following six states recorded the lowest number of applications, Kebbi 3,292, Taraba 3,120, Sokoto 2,921, Zamfara 2,326, Jigawa 2,031 and Yobe State produced 1,589 candidates.
Investigations revealed that after the policy meeting on admissions, the authorities of the nation’s universities have fixed different dates for the controversial post-UME test ahead of their resumption for next academic session.

Ahead of the post-UME test, thousands of candidates have besieged the institutions of their first and second choices while those who have problem with their results have also been visiting the Yaba headquarters of the West African Examinations Council (WAEC).

According to him, the universities that are ready would proceed with the 2006/2007 admission exercise in line with their carrying capacity as allocated by the National Universities Commission (NUC) and to meet the Federal Government’s directive on September /June academic calendar.
Investigations by Daily Sun revealed that some of the 88,318 candidates who were directed by JAMB to effect a change in their first or second choice institutions because of the de-accreditation of programmes of some universities by the NUC may miss out.

With the commencement of the post-UME test, the affected candidates who did not heed JAMB advice are in a dilemma while some universities have also screened out candidates for picking the institutions as second choice and those who presented combined WAEC or NECO results were not allowed to write the test.