The Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has raised concern over the “alarming rate of false affidavits and upsurge of doctored upward age-adjustments” on NIN slips being submitted to the board to upgrade recorded age.
The board said it is dangerous, inimical and unnecessary while maintaining that only candidates who will be at least 16 years old at the time of admission will be considered eligible.
The Spokesperson of JAMB, Dr Fabian Benjamin, who disclosed this at a briefing in Abuja on Sunday, said: “Only those below 16 would not and should not be admitted in accordance with the decision of the 2024 Policy Meeting.”
This is even as the Board gave all tertiary institutions in the country one month to disclose all admissions conducted outside its Central Admissions Processing System (CAPS) prior to 2017.
He said: “The attention of the Board has been drawn to the predilection of some institutions to admit candidates outside the approved Central Admissions Processing System (CAPS) platform and process such through the condonement of illegal admissions window to accord legitimacy.”
“In order to close this abused window, the Board has decided that: all institutions should now (or never) disclose all candidates illegally-admitted prior to 2017 whose records are in their system within the next one month beginning from 1st August, 2024; and any admission purportedly given prior to 2017 will no longer be recognised or condoned unless disclosed within this one-month window.”
He said: “Institutions are advised to comply with this directive as there will not be any further condonement of hitherto unrecorded candidates who did not even register with JAMB not to talk of sitting for any entrance examination.
“This move is aimed at curbing illegal admissions and falsification of records, while ensuring compliance with the provisions of CAPS.”
The Board also raised concern on the trend of a strange admissions-practice labeled as “Daily-Part-Time” (DPT) by certain polytechnics and “Top Up” (TU) by some universities.
Benjqmin said: “It is crucial to clarify that no such programmes are approved by National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) nor by National Universities Commission (NUC). Both are also alien to the education system in Nigeria.”
” They are fraudulent devices to side-line quality, approved quota for full time admission, falsify records and consequently, rake illegitimate income and derail the ambition and career of innocent (and some equally crooked) candidates,” he said.
While noting that candidates with zero or abysmally low UTME score are rationally attracted to such contraption which would lead to nowhere, he said Part-time programmes are strictly regulated, allowing institutions to admit only up to 150 per cent of the approved full-time capacity
He, however, said some institutions have been found to admit an excessive number of candidates through this unrecognized DPT programme, merging them with full-time students in classrooms and purporting to graduate them at the same time with full time students.