By Gabriel Dike
A recent interaction with the Registrar, Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Prof. Is-haq Oloyede, was an eye-opener on admission process. It gave insight into why candidates with high marks do no usually secure admission.
Oloyede had monitored the ongoing registration for the 2021 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) in Lagos. He said some candidates with good scores who do not admission “are the architecture of their problem but they end up blaming the universities and JAMB.”
He said with the available facts, “some candidates write wrong UTME subject combinations and do not have the right five WAEC credits.” Citing samples of some candidates with high scores, the JAMB boss said universities would drop those with wrong subject combinations.
The registrar debunked the claim that the University of Ibadan (UI), jumped some candidates who picked Medicine and Surgery: “UI is the most compliance in the on-going admission exercise. If I were the vice chancellor, I sue the candidate.
“Parents and candidates are blackmailing universities over admission when their wards are not offered admission.” He blamed such candidates for failure to comply with directive on the admission exercise:
“We will engage the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC) to follow the admission exercise into tertiary institutions so that if anybody gets involved in admission fraud, such persons will answer to the law.
“Since candidates and parents are getting smarter, JAMB is also wiser. The board will involve EFCC and ICPC in the admission process. The CBT operators will also be involved if found wanting.
“The University of Ibadan was given 180 as quota for Medicine and Surgery in the current admission exercise. It has so far admitted about 80 per cent. Out of the candidates that applied to UI, 2,821 candidates were qualified for MBBS.
“Number one on the list of UI for MBBS is a candidate from Imo State. He scored 344 in UTME, 80 per cent in UI post UTME, thus had an aggregate of 83 per cent. The second on the list is from Ogun State with 336 in UTME.
“The third candidate on the list with high marks in UTME and post-UTME was not offered admission because the candidate did not upload his O’Level result. Forty five per cent of UI admission for MBBS is on merit. Nobody on the blue will be dropped.
“Based on records, UI did not drop any candidate. Imo State is not a catchment area for UI, so many candidates from the state with low narks will not be considered. A candidate with 234 wants to be taken for MBBS. And the parents are making noise about it.
“The process of admission in 890 tertiary institutions is transparent. If you are not from catchment areas of UI, University of Lagos (UNILAG) and Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, one cannot be admitted to read MBBs even with 300 in UTME.”
Oloyede gave an instance candidates with high marks did not get admitted, particularly the case of UNILAG Political Science: “The first candidate on merit list scored 298 and 76 in post-UTME but the university jumped the third candidate because of wrong subject combinations.”
He said the on-going registration for 2021 the UTME “is progressing without any major problem. As at last week, over 560,671 candidates had registered for the UTME while 18,492 are for direct entry.”
The JAMB boss accused elite schools in the country of aiding examination malpractices by registering their students in group, collecting between N14,000 and N16,000 from parents as against the official fee of N3,500:
“In Abuja, a school collected N16, 000 from parents. I will write to the Federal Ministry of Education to sanction them. The President reduced the fee to N3, 500 but they are collecting above the approved fee.