JAMB bars 262 institutions from admitting students

Students of Elkanemi School of Islamic Theology in Maiduguri, marking the UN Day Against Drug Abuse in Maiduguri on Tuesday (26/6/12). NAN Photo

JOINT Admissions and Matriculation Board, JAMB Tuesday said it had barred 262 institutions of higher learning from participating in next year’s admission exercise for non-compliance with admission guidelines.
JAMB Registrar, Professor Dibu Ojerinde who spoke at the Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, Abia state, at the opening ceremony of the 3rd Combined Policy Committee meeting on Admission to degrees, National Diploma, NEC and National Innovation Diploma-Awarding institutions for 2012/2013, however, said 14 of the institutions affected had complied with the laid down guidelines.
According to Ojerinde, the meeting would consider first choice of most preferred institutions of candidates and noted that the affected universities were sanctioned because they refused to abide by the board’s admission laid down guidelines, saying that in JAMB, it was no longer business as usual.
According to him, “From our exercise of verifying admission compliance for 2011/2012, about 262 institutions were penciled for delisting from next year’s admission exercise. However, about 14 have so far complied with the laid down guidelines and regulations. We are going ahead as directed by the Government to de-list the institutions with effect from 2013 admission exercise.”
The Registrar charged participants in the meeting to “follow the guidelines which stipulate a 70:30 technology/non-technology ratio for National Diploma programmes and 60:40 Science/Arts ratio for the universities and colleges of education.”
Ojerinde urged them to adhere strictly to the Federal Government guidelines on 45% merit, 35% catchment and 20% educationally less developed, saying “All stakeholders are to adhere strictly to these guidelines as the Federal Government is desirous of giving all Nigerians equal opportunity to mix and educate in every part of the country.”
He also told them that the board expected every university to include in the admission print-out, the criteria used in admitting the candidates and that all admissions must come to an end by the end of October 2012.
Declaring open the meeting, Governor Theodore Orji who commended JAMB for how it conducts admissions, asked that un-utilized 20% allocated to states adjudged educationally backward be given to states like Abia willing to take them.