Candidates who hope to register for Direct Entry examinations conducted by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board with pre-degree certificates from 15 institutions across the country will now be subjected to a pre-verification exercise.
The list of the 15 institutions was obtained in Abuja on Tuesday.
The board noted that it took its decision following the failure of the institutions to respond to the verification requests on the status of the certificates issued to candidates during the conduct of the 2023 DE registrations.
The pre-verification process will, henceforth, be conducted via the Central Admissions Processing System, popularly known as CAPS.
JAMB clarified that candidates from other institutions would not be subjected to the pre-verification exercises.
The affected institutions are Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria; University of Nigeria, Nsukka; Cross Rivers State College of Education; Kashim-Ibrahim College of Education, Borno; Nuhu Bamali Polytechnic, Kaduna; Ekiti State University, Ekiti; and Akanu Ibiam Federal Polytechnic, Ebonyi.
Others are the College of Education, Katsina-Ala; Osun State College of Education, Osun; Shehu Shagari College of Education, Sokoto; College of Health Technology, Calabar; Federal College of Animal Health and Production Technology, Plateau; Best Solution Polytechnic, Akure; College of Education, Wakka-Biu and Federal University of Technology, Owerri.
Meanwhile, JAMB said it uncovered at least, 1,665 fake A’level results during the 2023 Direct Entry registration.
The exam body also said the A’level results verification regime was occasioned by the endemic corruption associated with the system and was intended to restore the integrity of this component of the admission process.
JAMB Registrar, Prof. Is-haq Oloyede, disclosed this when he received the leadership of the National Association of Nigeria Colleges of Education Students in his office on Tuesday in Abuja.
According to him, out of this figure, “397 were from Colleges of Education, 453 were university diplomas, and the rest were other A’level certificates.”
Oloyede said, “It should be of grave concern if no one respects the certificate one is holding; hence, there is a need to safeguard the integrity of A’level certificates that are used to secure admission through measures that would stand the test of time.”
He recalled that in the past, when a candidate applied for DE, JAMB would simply ask awarding institutions to do the necessary screening and due diligence.
He stated that JAMB was dumbfounded by the startling revelations from Bayero University, Kano, whereby out of the 148 Direct Entry applications to the institution, only six of the certificates forwarded for processing were genuine.
The registrar added that it was the discovery of this monumental fraud that prompted the meeting of critical stakeholders, who met to chart ways of combating the menace.
Part of the measures suggested, he said, was the constitution of an A’level result verification task force as well as the creation of a common platform for the verification of A’level results and certificates.
He said the platform was reliable and user-friendly, as it only takes five minutes to verify any given certificate.
Oloyede also disclosed that to underscore the importance attached to the exercise, JAMB had put in place a “No Verification, No Admission” policy.
While listing 15 institutions that have not sufficiently complied with verification requests from JAMB, Oloyede stated that the affected institutions, with more than 20 unverified candidates, would have to pre-verify candidates applying with their certificates before they could complete their DE registration process.
According to the registrar, the modification to the ongoing DE registration is that candidates could go ahead and register while the school verifies them at the backend.
He, however, declared that the 15 institutions, which were yet to fully comply, would have to pre-verify holders of their certificates before they complete their DE registration.
