The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), has said that no secondary school was meant to be ridiculed over alleged high Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examinations (UTME) fee.
Its Head, Public Affairs and Protocol, Dr Fabian Benjamin, said: “The Registrar, Prof Is-haq Oloyede, was on a scheduled inspection of the on-going 2021 UTME registration exercise in the South-West. On getting to Lagos, he held a press conference after which he proceeded to JKK Computer-Based Test Centre, one of the board’s approved UTME registration centres to assess the registration there.
“Oloyede was accompanied by over 30 representatives of media houses. He had an interview session with the journalists. The issue of mismatched data occurred as a result of group registration by the authorities of some elite schools, which collect huge sums of money from parents in the name of helping them to facilitate their wards’ registration.
“The board is against this practice as its examination is not a group-based exercise. The registrar said he was not aware of any large-scale extortion going on anywhere other than the exception of some elite secondary schools, which are in the habit of illegitimately collecting money in the name of the board.
“The Registrar’s attention was drawn to some students insinuating that they could be among those involved in group registration. The registrar asked them how much they paid for the UTME registration and the name of their school, which they disclosed.
“Oloyede knew that there are administrative channels of addressing such abnormalities. The board would want to dissuade the public from misinterpreting this happenstance. It should be noted that the board had, on some occasions, had cause to also sanction faith-based schools located in the Northern part of the country.
‘’The board wishes to reiterate that it has always been its policy to sanction any school that collects a dime above the approved UTME fee particularly when such exercises are linked to the board’s name and integrity. It does so without any fear or favour of any religious or ethnic group.’’
