The media space was awash last week with revelations during the yearly Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) National Policy meeting where the requisite scores for admission are agreed upon.
The process usually starts with all institutions submitting their required scores, after which the heads of the institutions, which include vice chancellors, rectors, provosts, registrars and admission officers, meet to decide the admissible score.
This year, the minimum mark was pegged at 140 for universities, 100 for Polytechnics and Colleges of Education same as that of 2023.
Agreeing on the admissible score, however, did not generate much argument as it was swiftly decided upon with little objection from some quarters. However, the first disagreement was when the Minister of Education, Prof. Tahir Mamman, insisted that the entry age into tertiary institution was 18 years.
The stakeholders rejected the submission, saying that students who already wrote the UTME and have their O’level results should not be denied admission. This, however, got the nod of Prof. Mamman, who said 16-year-olds should be admitted for 2024 but that the law stands as from next year.
During his presentation, JAMB Registrar, Prof. Is-haq Oloyede, discredited the notion that admissions were given by JAMB, explaining that admission depended on the availability of candidates’ five O’level requirements as UTME was only meant for admission ranking.
Oloyode also revealed that several Nigerian universities have been accepting students as young as 10 years old, which violates the provision of the National education policy.
Citing a case of underage admission, he said a candidate applied for a master’s degree at a university in Germany and then applied for the EU Erasmus Scholarship programme for a postgraduate scholarship.
“The country found it strange that a candidate was born in 2007 and on her passport, she started university when she was 12 years old. The selection committee contacted Nigeria to confirm if indeed the candidate studied at the university and graduated at the age of 15 in Nigeria,” he said.
The JAMB registrar, however, believed that they would tighten the issue in years to come and graduates of Nigerian universities will not have to suffer one humiliation or the other.
On the admission process, the JAMB boss, explained that institutions have the liberty to determine their cut-off points but they must not be below the mark agreed at the policy meeting as the collective decision of all heads of tertiary institutions both private and public.
He pointed out that the 2023 admission process, which is still ongoing, has shown that there are candidates who have high scores but have yet to get admission into any tertiary institution.
Statistics of admission based on performance
In his presentation on the 2023 Admission Exercise, he said from over 1,635,881 applications for UTME and Direct Entry, only 639,263 candidates have been admitted into tertiary institutions across the country as of July 10, 2024.
Though the admission exercise is still ongoing, 639,263 candidates have so far gained admission as against the 693,398 total number of admissions in 2022.
The breakdown of the data presented showed that 1,635,881 candidates who sat for UTME and applied for DE are seeking admission into tertiary institutions, out of which DE has 47,024, and 23,144 have so far been admitted.
For those who sat for the UTME and scored 100+ are 1,514, 455 and those who scored 140 and above are 1,462,311.
The analysis of the data showed that candidates with five O’ Level credits and scored 100+ plus DE, are 980,914 while those with five O’ Level credits with 100+ including English & Maths plus DE candidates are 956,316 and those with 5 O’ Level credits and scored 140+ and above including English & Maths plus DE are 940,786.
Credit: Dailytrust
