80% of JAMB candidates not qualified to write UTME – Registrar

The Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, JAMB, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, has revealed that 40 per cent of candidates, who pass the examination annually conducted by the body, do not have the qualification to study in the university.

This was as he stated that 80 per cent of the 1.5 candidates, who apply to write the yearly Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination, UTME, do not have the qualifications to sit for it.

Oloyede made this known in Abuja at the 2016 Nigeria Higher Education Summit with the theme: “Exploiting diversity, differentiation and quality assurance in revitalising the Nigerian higher education system.”

The event was organised by the Committee of Vice-Chancellors of Nigerian Federal Universities in collaboration with Trust Africa.

According to the JAMB boss, “Forty per cent of them (those who sit for JAMB exam) do not have qualification. They may pass JAMB, but they do not have the O’Level requirements to go into the universities.

“By the time you mop up the whole thing, what will remain is not this big figure (1.5 million) that gives us the type of shameful statistics you parade all over Africa,” he added.

In his remarks, the Secretary-General of Association of the Vice Chancellors of Nigerian Universities, Prof. Michael Faborode said the researches done by Nigerian universities needs to be celebrated.

“Let us appreciate these things and let us bring them to the fore so that we will not just be mourning over the challenges alone; let us celebrate the successes,” he said.

The JAMB Registrar had before now stated that the move by the Senate to extend the validity of the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination, UTME, to three years will do more harm than good, stressing that the approach may not solve the problem it seeks to address.