From Fred Ezeh, Abuja
The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) said on Monday that institutions no longer need to visit the headquarters of the Board for programme accreditation or admission processes because innovations have been introduced to make things easier.
JAMB said the introduction of the Interactive e-Brochure and e-Syllabus System (IBASS) has solved the problem and discouraged institutions from crowding JAMB offices for any service.
JAMB Registrar Prof Is-haq Oloyede, who stated the development at a workshop with some officials of the Board from the North Central zonal, in Abuja, assured that correspondence between JAMB and individual institutions would be individualised, meaning that such communication would not be open to third parties like in the case of WhatsApp.
He explained that in the past, institutions had to travel down to their offices across the country to brief them on the status of their programmes and accreditation status.
JAMB Registrar said: “Communications between NUC, NBTE, NCCE on one hand and the institution on the other hand and in some cases with JMAB have been very chaotic and unnecessarily waste because the institution will have to come all the way from, maybe Port Harcourt or Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, to say this programme has been accredited or introduced for us.
“I will write to NUC, NBTE or NCCE to verify whether it has been done, but with the new style, we can do things in a more efficient and faster manner, and that is why we are using IBASS as a communication tool.
“Immediately a programme is amended or approved by NUC, NBTE or NCCE, it is immediately transmitted to the institution and once it is transmitted to that institution, it is only that institution that will see it. And JAMB will immediately see it. NBTE will not see the NCCE work nor will NCCE see what is going on in NBTE. It is individualised to the issues of the communicators.”
He said the training on the use of IBASS took place in the six geo-political zones simultaneously and had Vice Chancellors, Provosts, Rectors and other administrative staff of tertiary institutions in attendance.
On November 14, 2022, JAMB announced the full automation of its administration and other communication processes to all its stakeholders as a means of eliminating bureaucracy.
The Board said it took the decision after reviewing bottlenecks associated with communicating or interfacing with various tertiary institutions regarding admission processes.
According to Prof Oloyede, from January 2023, JAMB will refrain from receiving any physical letter from any institution or agency except through its IBASS platform.
The JAMB Registrar added that the goal of the new policy is to make things easier and faster for tertiary institutions.