JAMB GIST - FG Reverses JAMB Policy On Admission

The decision by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, JAMB to allow candidates that applied to universities with surplus applicants for the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examinations (UTME) to be reassigned to other universities with lower number of applicants than their capacities has been reversed by the federal government, following protests that trailed the decision.

The Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Education, MacJohn Nwaobiala, disclosed this to State House correspondents yesterday after briefing President Muhammadu Buhari of his ministry’s activities and challenges at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

JAMB had at its 2015 Combined Policy Meeting adopted the policy which did not go down well with students and parents, as protests started at the University of Lagos when the institution’s authorities announced that only candidates whose names were officially forwarded by JAMB would be  eligible to participate in this year’s UNILAG Post-UTME.

Nwaobiala told reporters that the decision was jointly taken at a stakeholders meeting that had parents and others in attendance, adding that because of the dust raised by the development, the federal government had commenced consultation so as to adjust the policy.

He however said students that made the cut off marks had been directed to go and write post-UME examinations in their schools of first choice since that was the cause of the protests.

“This JAMB thing has been there. As the policy making body, when these issues were raised, they raised in a stakeholders meeting. We normally have what we call the policy meeting. These are decisions that we collectively took. However, we have a listening hear. We have taken a lot of the issues raised into consideration and we are consulting to see the adjustments we can make here and there.

The directive has been given. All the students that made the cut off marks have been told to go and write post-UME examinations in their schools of first choice. After, they can go to their schools of second choice. That has been the bone of contention,” Nwaobiala said.