JAMB threatens to sanctions schools charging over N4,000, warns parents against underage candidate
by Peregba Jerry
The Registrar of Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Prof. Is-haq Oloyede has reiterated the resolve of the board to sanction schools charging above the stipulated N4,000 for the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).
Oloyede during his oversight visit to some Computer Based Test (CBT) centres in Lagos also warned that registration centres that charge above ₦700 will be discredited.
He lamented that some elite schools charge as high as N8,000 and N16,000 and in the process.
“UTME is ₦3500, plus ₦500 for a book that is being given to candidates, totalling N4,000 and the registration centres should not charge more than ₦700, any registration centre charging more than ₦700 will be disaccredited,”
“We have written to the federal ministry of education to sanction these schools, because the President has reduced the cost of UTME but they are not allowing the benefit go to the parents. The over-charging makes the schools bring candidates in batches and make them mix up some of the candidates data,” he said.
Oloyede disclosed that so far, a total of 410,517 candidates have registered for UTME and 12,040 registered for direct entry in 787 centres.
He further disclosed that the board is partnering with EFCC and ICPC to give access to its backend so that any public university that does not comply with the laid down principles is questioned.
Commenting on NIN, Oloyede maintained that it is still mandatory for all candidates sitting for UTME. “We will start using USSD, presently we are using SMS, we now want to create a supplement, even though SMS will still work regardless, the USSD will work by using the code *55019*1* NIN#.”
The registrar, who also expressed concern over the wrong subjects’ combination by candidates in the process of registration, noted that, it is one of the factors that may militate against them being admitted into any tertiary institution in the country despite having a high UTME score.
He warned parents to desist from over-pushing their kids as he pointed out that many of the candidates are aged 13,14 and 16 years.
Under aged candidates according to him are not biologically, psychologically and physically ready, hence this makes them fall prey to some lecturers who harass them.
