The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has disclosed that a total of 557,626 candidates from 1.8 million applications have so far been admitted into tertiary institutions across the country in its 2022 admission session.
Registrar of JAMB, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, said this in Abuja at the 2023 Policy Meeting on Admissions into Tertiary Institutions. Oloyede said the 2022 admission process was still on-going due to opportunities given to some key players in the sector to conduct admissions.
He said:” As of June 19, tertiary institutions have admitted 557,626 candidates, but as we speak today, the admission is up to 600,000 as we target about 700,000. This is because admission is still ongoing.
”We hear about cut-off marks by JAMB but the truth is that not the best candidate who scored the highest mark in UTME is the best candidate.
”Admission is based on the five O’ level results that a candidate possesses because we only make use of UTME for admission ranking. JAMB has not initiated admissions since 2016″, he said.
The JAMB registrar, who clarified that his organisation was not responsible for admissions as believed in some quarters, said schools were responsible for admissions.
According to him, the onus lied with institutions to determine the national minimum tolerable UTME score, often called the cut-off marks.Also speaking at the event, the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Education, David Adejo, tasked stakeholders to ensure fairness, transparency, and accountability in the admission process which he noted, determines the fate of millions of students.
He told admission stakeholders to ensure credibility in the process so that no candidate would be denied admission, as well as no deserving candidate, was given admission.
He said: ”The Federal Ministry of Education has resolved that the fundamental principle of the ministry is openness and this has been provided by JAMB through inclusiveness in the UTME.”JAMB must ensure sanity and integrity of exams and admission must be based on agreed guidelines to deepen accountability, transparency and fairness.
” Criteria for admissions remained critical by JAMB and all institutions must abide by them as we need to stick to the approved quota for admission.”
