From Fred Ezeh, Abuja
The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has warned tertiary institutions to quit engaging in admission exercise outside the Central Admission Processing System (CAPS) to avoid exposing students to unnecessary frustrations and delay at the end of their academic programme.
The Board maintained that CAPS is the approved automated platform for admissions, insisting that admissions exercise outside the CAPS lacks legitimacy, and the consequences of such action is that the concerned student won’t be mobilised for NYSC.
It noted that admission process has been 90 per cent automated and, by 2024/2025 academic year, the entire process will be fully automated using the CAPS digital platform.
It also frowned at the increasing habits of some tertiary institutions that fail to conduct matriculation for several years, yet, they keep graduating students and issuing certificates.
JAMB, in its weekly bulletin released on Monday, in Abuja, indicated that its Registrar, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, raised the concerns in a speech he delivered at a two-day refresher training for all its admission Desk Officers organised to sensitive them on the significance of matriculation and matriculation list analysis.
Prof. Oloyede stated that the training was important to ensure optimal performance of the Desk Officers, expressing displeasure with the flagrant disregard for extant regulations by some erring institutions.
“How can a school that never admitted any candidate continue to issue certificates and graduating students?” he queried, adding “no doubt, a number of them got approval to operate, but they never bother following other requisite regulations thereafter, they just continue running the institutions their own way,” he said.
He charged the Desk Officers to take the training seriously as they would be held responsible for not informing any erring institutions, in writing, that they did not admit new students and, as such, could not graduate any students.
He said: “At the end of the year, you should be able to inform the erring institutions that had not informed you of their matriculation in writing that, they had not admitted any student for the year, and such, candidates who attend such schools do it at their own risk, as they would not be mobilised for the one-year compulsory national youths service.”
The Registrar suggested that the reports from the Desk Officers must be robust enough to give details of all institutions assigned to them, whether they have written to notify the Board of their matriculations or not, insisting that the analysis should not only be based on the records of the institutions that have communicated to JAMB.
He said: “Immediately you are through with your analysis and your Director approves it, you will be expected to send a copy to the Head of Public Affairs and Protocol, for a weekly publication of what is now to be known as ‘Matriculation This Week’, which will feature the details of the institutions that are ready for matriculation within any particular week.”
The Registrar stated that other details that would be in the reports include; the number of candidates for pending approval, number of candidates for pending recommendations, number of candidates admitted on CAPS, number of candidates admitted outside CAPS,, etc.
Prof. Oloyede admonished the Desk Officers to constantly ensure free flow of communication between them and the institutions, particularly if there is any reason for which the schools could not be permitted to matriculate.
“If any institution has admitted candidates under the table, even if such school has sent its matriculation list and invited the Board for matriculation within the stipulated period, all you will simply do is to write to them that they cannot matriculate because, most of their admitted students have been admitted outside CAPS against the regulation,” he said.
Prof. Oloyede charged the participants to take advantage of the training to acquire necessary skills, noting that the admission process has been 90% automated and, therefore, different from what they used to know.
In his remarks, the Director of Information and Technology Services (ITS), Mr. Fabian Okoro, assured the Desk Officers that his department is ever ready to render necessary technical support to the admission department for seamless services to Nigerians.