Posted on: 12:16 Sat, 30 Sep 2017



The radical reforms sweeping clouds of dust from the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) have once again expunged more debris of failed and foiled policies concealed under the carpet of complacence and corruption in the past. In its initial ripples, the revision-for-reform agenda of the Oloyede-led management of the board caused a stir in the conduct of the annual UTME examinations, dramatically throwing out all manner of entrenched flaws and dubious practices behind the problematic perception of JAMB’s functions.

These anomalies had defied solution and became another disheartening addition to “Nigerian factor” plaguing our education sector.

In the latest dose of disinfecting policy review, JAMB has boldly redefined the concept and criteria applicable to the admission process into universities and other tertiary institutions in Nigeria that had been bogged down by endemic failure to earn public confidence and meet set policy objectives, resulting in distrust of certification credentials and frustration of thousands of hapless students. The minimum cut-off marks for admission into universities in Nigeria was this year set at 120, polytechnics and colleges of education pegged at 100, while that of innovative enterprising institutes was pegged at 110. The outrageous uproar that greeted these cut-off marks was however nothing but the pretentious protestations of those who were in the thick of manipulated admission processing in the many institutions involved as well as their fellow travelers jolted by sudden change in circumstances and loss of vested interests in the workings of a wrong- headed policy. By the time the strategic import of the new cut-off marks were unraveled by JAMB, the orchestrated opposition from some academics, university administrators, parents, civic right groups and students evaporated into silent embarrassment.

Contrary to the spirited defense of the high cut-off mark policy as a value addition to the purported quality assurance focus for admission into universities prescribed routinely in years past, JAMB’s new broom swept out disturbingly dubious debris under the carpet laid out to hoodwink Nigerians whereas illegal admissions and other malpractices infested the admission process.

In fact, JAMB established that as many as 17,160 students were admitted without clearance because “the cut-off marks previously brandished to the public were never strictly followed by most institutions. Some were going behind to admit candidates with far less scores, while others admitted candidates who never sat for the UTME”.

Unbelievable You better believe it as the new JAMB’s dividend of transparency, beaming the spotlight on what the old JAMB and its collaborating university administrators deliberately covered up all these years in order to perpetuate their callous racketeering, which must have yielded lots of loot. The initial brouhaha was corruption fighting back!

It has also now been clearly understood that lowering the cut-off mark to 120 was a well thought initiative articulated and adopted after combined policy meetings on admission into tertiary institutions in Nigeria. Professor Oloyede has since assured that JAMB is coming up with Central Admission Processing System (CAPS) to streamline admission processes among institutions as it addresses challenges associated with the old order, emphasizing that JAMB is a screening body to rank already qualified candidates. It is a coordinating and clearing house.

Danbarewa writes from Kaduna