We’re still vetting admission lists from varsities – JAMB

Charles Abah

As hundreds of candidates look forward to knowing their 2016/2017 admission status, the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board says it is still vetting the list of the first batch of  applicants submitted to it by the various universities, polytechnics and colleges of education.

The clarification came against the backdrop that the board promised to upload the lists for candidates’ accessibility three days after meeting with stakeholders in Kano, Kano State.

Officials of JAMB and others stakeholders had earlier met at the Bayero University, Kano State, last week where they looked into the admission exercise. The new JAMB Registrar, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, presided over the meeting.

But as of Monday evening, the board had yet to upload the lists.

The JAMB Head of Media and Information, Dr. Fabian Benjamin, who spoke to our correspondent on Monday, however, said that it would upload the lists before the end of the week.

According to him, the board is still reconciling all the data forwarded to it by the various institutions to ensure that they respected the laid down procedures.

The JAMB spokesman also stated that the final lists of candidates seeking admission to the nation’s universities in the 2016/2017 academic session would not be known until November 14 when the board as well as other stakeholders would meet again to determine their fate.

The meeting, according to Benjamin, will hold in Owerri, Imo State capital.

He, however, assured that the delay would not result in denying any eligible candidate admission.

The spokesman, who said the Kano meeting was successful, nonetheless, stated that stakeholders would meet again in Owerri later to determine the final list.

He, however, added that the Senate and the academic boards of the various universities had the mandate to continue to select their candidates in line with laid down admission requirements.

A series of controversies had greeted both the conduct of this year’s Universities Tertiary Matriculation Examination as well as the post-UTME tests.

While the UTME, in which more than 1.5 million candidates sat for between February 27 and March 23, had hiccups occasioned by technical hitches, the Minister of Education, Mr. Adamu Adamu, at a combined policy meeting on admission to universities, polytechnics and other higher institutions in June, scrapped the post-UTME.

Adamu described the sitting for another round of examination after the UTME as unnecessary.

A former Minister of Education, Mrs. Chinwe Obaji, and a former Governing Council Chairman of the University of Lagos, Chief Afe Babalola (SAN), among others, had faulted the minister’s directive, saying that it would affect negatively the quality of university education in the country.

The computer-based examination for entrance to the universities, polytechnics and colleges of education took place in 540 centres in Nigeria and eight overseas countries.

Of the over 1.5million candidates that sat for the UTME, University of Ilorin, Kwara State, attracted the highest number of applicants with 103, 238 candidates applying to study in the university this year.

The University of Benin, Edo State, with 81, 363 candidates and the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Kaduna State, with 75, 383 candidates came second and third respectively.

– PUNCH