The Registrar, Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Prof. Is-haq Oloyede, said the board is not an examining body so its results cannot remain valid for more than one year.
According to a statement made available to Blueprint Moday by JAMB’s Head of Public Affairs and Protocol, Dr Fabian Benjamin, Prof.Oloyede made the clarification while delivering a lecture, titled, ”The imperative of JAMB in Tertiary Education in Nigeria” at the 13th Gbagura Day Celebration held on December 14, 2022, in Abeokuta, Ogun state.
In his exposition, the registrar said JAMB could admit candidates in
conjunction with tertiary institutions without examination while citing the Direct Entry admission option through which candidates gain admissions through JAMB without taking any examination.
Oloyede further said education was the bedrock of development in any nation and cited example of Prof. Babatunde Fafunwa, who said, “education is not limited to Western Education, as it is not limited to the four walls of a classroom.”
Oloyede said JAMB was established to check multiple places given to some candidates, and thus denied others.
“The establishment of the Board became necessary as multiple admissions denied other students the opportunity to study their desired courses. It was also in a bid to achieve national spread where every candidate, who meets the requirements, is offered admissions that brought JAMB
into being in 1977.
“The Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) is a ‘one- chance’ examination as you cannot bank (extend validity) of an examination that does not reflect the overall ability of the candidate. This implies that the result can only be used for the purpose for which the examination is written,” he said.
He further said, the possession of only UTME result does not guarantee admissions into some higher institutions, as some of the institutions use a combination of the UTME result and the candidate’s O’level result to arrive at an aggregate for admission.
He therefore, advised candidates to choose institutions within their catchment areas to enhance their chances of gaining admissions.
He said the first 45 per cent of admissions in federal institutions are based on merit, 35 per cent on catchment areas and 20 per cent on educationally-less advantaged states.
