The Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Prof. Is-haq Oloyede, has taken stock of the conduct of the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) over the course of the past couple of years and submitted that the purported allegations of award of arbitrary score in the Board’s examination are no longer tenable.
This is not unconnected with the deployment of relevant technology to protect the sanctity of its examination towards precluding any forms of infractions.
The Registrar stated this when he received a delegation from the Lagos State University of Education (LASUED) on Tuesday, 30th May, 2023, who had paid him a courtesy visit at his office in Bwari, Abuja.
The Registrar, who was speaking against the backdrop of the daily updates on progress and status of all admissions being conducted nationwide by all the over 900 tertiary institutions as presented on the dashboard of the Central Admissions Processing System (CAPS), pointed out that from his office he could see, not only the performance of the candidates, but their screening scores as well. He stated that it was not on account of the correlation of the scores of the high scoring candidates in the UTME with the institutions’ own screening ratings that the validity of the UTME as conducted by JAMB becomes evident.
Furthermore, he stated that those institutions which want to retest the candidates through the conduct of post-UTME are doing so based on outdated perception of the poor validity of JAMB scores.
“I have never discouraged any university from conducting post-UTME because I know it would get to a point that the futility of such would be so clear.”
“It is better they make post-UTME screening rather than examination as the argument that JAMB awards arbitrary scores has expired and can no longer be sustained.”
“Hence, there is no need for institutions to subject candidates to another round of examinations.
Scores awarded by JAMB are not what they used to be,” he said.
Furthermore, the Registrar advised the universities against localising their intakes and urged them to ensure that their top 10 percent subscription have a global outlook to enhance quality, networking and community development.
Earlier, the Vice-Chancellor, LASUED, Prof. Bidemi Bilkis Lafiaji-Okuneye, said the university’s functionaries had come to the Board’s Headquarters for a familiarisation visit as well as seek closer ties with the Board.
The Vice Chancellor thanked the Board for its support to the institution, promising that the university would not take such support for granted.
Prof. Lafiaji-Okuneye, a Professor of Health Education, was formerly the Provost of Adeniran Ogunsanya College of Education (AOCOED) before she was appointed Vice Chancellor, LASUED, when the College was upgraded last year to a full-fledged degree-awarding institution.
