July 21, (THEWILL) – The recent disclosure by the Registrar of Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, Professor Ishaq Oloyede, that over one million students were admitted illegally by some tertiary institutions in the country between 2017 to 2020, leaves much to be desired.
Fair enough that he made the statement at the 2024 policy meeting of heads of tertiary institutions in the country as admission for this year gets underway.
According to the JAMB boss, many of the students with illegal admission do not have the basic qualifications to be admitted into the course they registered to study, though the examination body has been able to regularise 600,000 of the numbers admitted illegally. The Federal Ministry of Education, in cahoots with some institutions, has engaged in this kind of racketeering between 2017 and 2020, a whole three years.
Recall that Oloyede was appointed JAMB Registrar in 2016, a year before this bubble burst. This means that this assault on admissions into tertiary institutions has, in all probability, been going on before his appointment.
It is a sad commentary on our educational system on the one hand and on the managers of the system on the other. Moreover, it is also a revelation of a deeper malaise that is the endemic corruption that continues to blight institutions and men in the country.
It is one thing to say that many parents, as has often been the case, have contributed to compromising the standard of education in the country by their support and encouragement of examination malpractices. It is quite another to say that the supervising ministry of education had aided and abetted this ignoble act with its implication for policy miscarriage and value addition.
In last Thursday’s meeting of stakeholders in tertiary institutions where Oloyede made this indictment, Vice-Chancellors and Rectors were in attendance, as well as officials from the Ministry of Education, led by the Minister, Tahir Mamman. We can only imagine that hearing Oloyede’s public disclosure would make those of them indulging in the ignoble act to have a rethink and retrace their steps or better still, cooperate with the JAMB Registrar to end the ugly trend.
This is not to say that crooks do not exist in tertiary institutions. Far from it. The point is that bending the rules to illegally admit unqualified students into institutions of higher learning is akin to agreeing to breed quacks in a place not meant for them. The attitude is wrong, corrodes the system and gambles with values of education, among which is character building, diligence and competence.
At the risk of sounding pedantic, we hasten to say that the knowledge acquired in tertiary institutions is mainly to open the mind, like an umbrella, to accommodate shades of ideas that broadens one’s horizon and enhances innovation and entrepreneurship. Certification is just a statement and proof of attendance, which further affirms the bearer’s qualities at given occasions.
Professor Oloyede is widely respected for rescuing JAMB from the doldrums it was descending during the tenure of his many successors who virtually turned the agency to a bazaar of sorts and so, need to be supported to carry on with his onerous job as Registrar. We call on institutions participating in illegal admission to desist from it.
Prof Mamman as Minister should ensure his ministry stops facilitating the obviously corrupt VCs and Provost in perpetuating this fraud that takes away the shine from the ivory tower image of universities, polytechnics and colleges of education. His recent plan to review secondary education curriculum in line with modern technological scientific and cultural trends as well as admissions into tertiary institutions should also add severe sanctions for those who deliberately compromise standards in admission into all tiers of education in the country.
Nigerians collective interests should trump the personal agendas of those who think only of their wards and usurp their positions to bend the rules for their personal gain.
