Candidates for NOUN, NTI, Sandwich, others to register through JAMB

Candidates for the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN), the National Teachers Institute (NTI), sandwich and other non-regular tertiary educational institution programmes would now be required to be registered through the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB).

This is based on a directive issued by the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu during the 2018 tertiary education admissions policy meeting held on Tuesday in Gbongan, Osun State.

Mr Adamu who described the admission process of these institutions as ‘irregular’/’illegal’ noted that it was the sole mandate of JAMB to regulate admission processing in first degree, National Diploma, National Innovative Diploma and the Nigeria Certificate in Education programmes.

In his words, “Pursuant to the spirit and letter of the enabling law of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, all applications for admissions to First Degree, National Diploma, National Innovative Diploma and the Nigeria Certificate in Education must be processed only through the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board. These include Full Time, Distance Learning, Part Time, Outreach, Sandwich, etc.”

Both the NOUN and the NTI are basically part-time and distance learning programmes. Other ‘irregular’ programmes are the Colleges of Nursing, Sandwich programmes, and distance learning courses that admit students without the JAMB gateway.

Adamu said that such could no longer continue like that. He also warned against the duplicity of admission, which JAMB would ordinarily be able check as a regulatory body.

“Applications for programmes for the listed certification by individual institutions should stop. While institutions can and should screen candidates, duplication of application form is not allowed.”

EduCeleb.com reports that the JAMB was established in 1978 to coordinate all forms of admission into Tertiary Institutions in Nigeria. It annually conducts matriculation examination into approved monotechnics, polytechnics, colleges of education, and universities.

The minister explained that JAMB had been unable to have specific data about students admitted through these programmes over the years because admission had been done without involving JAMB.

His directive was re-echoed by the JAMB Registrar, Ishaq Oloyede who clarified that this does not mean that students in these institutions would be writing the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).

“Whether distance learning, part-time or sandwich, all of them should be registered with JAMB so that we would have national data. It does not mean that they should come and sit for the UTME but we need the figure so as to know how many candidates we have,” he said.

Towards improving on the National Matriculation List

In a related development, the minister enjoined tertiary institutions and regulatory agencies to work with JAMB to improve the quality and authenticity of the Nigerian Tertiary Education data as partly contained in the National Matriculation list.

“Every institution should work with the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board and the regulatory to ensure proper scrutiny and reconciliation of the institution’s matriculation list,” he stated.

This is as he urged JAMB to reactivate the practice of publishing the National Matriculation List while working with regulatory agencies in monitoring the matriculation and admissions exercise.

EduCeleb.com can confirm that JAMB had always published the National Matriculation List over the years.

Oloyede said copies of these were available in both paper and digital formats. Anyone with one could easily ascertain the data of current and past students’ matriculation for a particular year.

Adamu said, “All successful candidates whose admissions are processed appropriately through the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board should be listed and the list made available publicly to all stakeholders. Anyone whose name is not on the National Matriculation List would be considered not to have been admitted.”

Professor Oloyede added that it was the lack of such records in previous years that had led to JAMB not being able to ascertain whether certain individuals actually graduated from Nigerian tertiary institutions whenever there is such request.

“If some bodies write to us from outside the country, we simply look at the year of entry (in the National Matriculation List). If he is not there, (that means that) he has not been admitted.

“That’s why many of your part-time and sandwich candidates would say JAMB wrote to them that they were not properly admitted. Once your name is not on the list, as far as we are concerned, that person was not admitted,” he added.

He also compared the tertiary admission figures in Nigeria and Ghana to back up his point. While Ghana takes into cognisance all sort of irregular programmes in its data, there is no such equivalence of that as Nigeria’s data does not cover such.

Meanwhile, the Nigerian Education Minister also cautioned against having the duration of non-full time programmes not below 150% equivalence of full time programmes and ordered regulatory agencies to ensure compliance.

“The duration of all non-Full Time studies must be maintained as approved by the regulatory agencies, and this is generally not less than one hundred and fifty percent (150%) of the equivalence of Full Time.

“I have directed the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), National Universities Commission (NUC), National Board for Technical Education (NBTE), and National Commission for Colleges of Education (NCCE) to fully ensure compliance with this policy directive and to issue clear guidelines to all concerned,” he said.