The recent revelation by the Registrar, Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) Professor Ish’aq Oloyede that some universities and other tertiary institutions in the country are giving illegal admissions to candidates is one issue that deserves condemnation by all right thinking persons. To put an end to this malaise requires collective efforts of both parents, students and educational administrators.
Oloyede made the allegation in Abuja at the 2021 Batch ‘B’ pre-mobilisation workshop of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC). He specifically stated that some of the certificates issued by the Interim Joint Matriculation Board (IJMB) and Joint Universities Preliminary Examinations Board (JUPEB) centres for Direct Entry into universities were fakes stressing that some of the candidates got certificates without attending classes.
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IJMB and JUPEB are national educational programmes approved by the Federal Government. They are qualifying examinations, for candidates seeking direct entry admissions into Nigerian and foreign universities, coordinated by some universities with centres across the country.
Merit-based admission is what makes a student a worthwhile applicant- whether that be through good character, excellent grades or test scores, or outstanding extracurricular. Unfortunately, in today’s Nigeria, merit itself is rarely defined neutrally or fairly, but rather in the image of those with power. If we don’t interrogate the process of evaluating merit and examine how this system serves the elites, we’ll keep seeing versions of this scandal pop up indefinitely.
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This phenomenon is common both at the basic and secondary education levels. It is a major reason for the low quality of graduates from our tertiary institutions with many of them incapable of defending their certificates. As it is popularly said “ you cannot give what you don’t have”.
For the JAMB registrar to speak out publicly as he did recently goes to show the level of rot in not just the admission process but the system as a whole. According to Oloyede, most of the institutions were found guilty of issuing admission letters to candidates without recourse to JAMB. In some of the cases, the students did not attend classes in the institutions.
There is no doubt that the need for access to university education has recently become vital in Nigeria as a result of an increase in the population and an awareness of the role of university education in the development of the individual as well as the nation. Recent admission policies of Nigerian universities have been dissatisfactory to the Nigerian public as many applicants and parents go through difficulties while seeking admission for limited available spaces in the universities.
Universities take the task of admission of students into the academic system using the guidelines set by the National Universities Commission (NUC) and the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB). The National Universities Commission (NUC), which regulates university education in terms of standards, has set policies based on merit, carrying capacity, catchment areas, and quota for educationally disadvantaged states as criteria for admission into all universities.
However, rather than these policies enhancing access to university education, the criteria restrict access to higher education. For example, statistics from federal ministry of education shows that each year, thousands of applicants sit for the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) examinations and less than twenty percent (20%) on the average gain admission into the universities and other institutions.
Therefore, factors such as inadequate number of universities/absorption capacity in Nigeria, lack of adequate facilities, and shortage of adequate manpower and admission policies (such as carrying capacity, catchment areas, and quota for educationally disadvantaged states) are responsible for the admission crisis in Nigeria and have a direct effect on the behavior of parents and students regarding admission.
Although it may sound as a new nomenclature, certificate racketeering, which is the acquisition of certificate through dishonest and illegal means is not a new thing in Nigeria. It is also the act of obtaining a certificate dishonestly through “sorting”, influencing examination scores and outright purchase of certificate without the requite knowledge. It is regrettable that most certificates today are no longer true representations of the intellectual capabilities of their owners. The high level of “cash for certificate” scam going on virtually everywhere is pathetic.
Today, there is an over emphasis on paper qualification in Nigeria. This worrying phenomenon could be discouraged only if less emphasis is accorded to certificates and greater consideration given to practical skills. We condemn a situation where people strive to acquire paper qualifications without necessarily passing through the academic rigours to attain them as such qualification has become a cog in the wheel of true educational growth in the country. It equally affects the marketability of Nigerian graduates.
We advise the education administrators to move beyond issuing paper qualifications alone, to the realm of producing skillful and functional graduates. A nation whose citizens are not individually developed and self-reliant are not reckoned with in today’s globalised world. The university system and other higher institutions of learning must, therefore see this ugly development as a serious challenge.
And in line with JAMB admission guidelines, tertiary institutions should not accept any admission done outside the recognized Central Admissions Processing systems as that would amount to illegitimate admission.
