Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) is an agency of the Federal Government of Nigeria saddled with, among others, the responsibilities: to conduct Matriculation Examination for entry into all Universities, Polytechnics and Colleges of Education (by whatever name called) in Nigeria, place suitably qualified candidates in the tertiary institutions after having taken into account:
(i) the vacancies available in each tertiary institution
(ii) the guidelines approved for each tertiary institution by its proprietors or other competent authorities
(iii) the preference expressed or otherwise indicated by the candidates for certain tertiary institutions and courses …….
(iv) collate and disseminate information on all matters relating to admissions into tertiary institutions or any other matter relevant to the discharge of functions of the board.
Since JAMB establishment in 1978 by the Military Government, it would have been expected that by now the Board would have been a centre of excellence. However, its conditions have worsened terrifically culminating in the hardship it exposes thousands of Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME)/ Direct Entry (DE) applicants.
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In recent time, Rights and Freedom Advocates (RIFA) have been receiving complaints on the inadequacies of JAMB. The first major complaint was when the examination body insisted that all applicants must obtain National Identity Number (NIN) before could be eligible to register for the Board Examinations.
This made some applicants’ family to leave their homes as early as 3am while others slept at hotels and nearby places just to register for NIN. The uproar of the hardship led the Board to shield the insistence on NIN registration.
Nonetheless, the board bureaucratic deficiency reached crescendo when RIFA office was inundated again with complaints that JAMB applicants who lost their telephone numbers registered with JAMB during registration cannot change same whenever they intend to transact subsequently with JAMB especially those who want to have their choice of institution or courses changed.
Several attempts have been made including writing and sending messages to JAMB Registrar by or on behalf of those whose lost telephone numbers have been recycled and sold to other subscribers just to have their records regularized. Unfortunately, no positive response from the Board to the letters and messages sent to it.
Apart from messages and letters sent to JAMB, its complaint portal was also employed but no respite. In one of the chats on 18th November 2020 with a victim of JAMB maladministration, JAMB Support Team responded to a complaint on its administrative deficiency thus “ the only solution, for now, is to do welcome back to the SIM CARD you used during UTME registration, the phone number cannot be changed, and it cannot be sent to any other device, not even the email address….” This indicates that whenever applicants are to transact with the Agency, codes are sent to the registered numbers only and not even to the email.
This is a serious malady created by JAMB management to deliberately shortchange some applicants. Even the email service providers, banks and other institutions using similar mechanisms like JAMB understand the reality of devices such as phones being lost and so often provide options of replacing lost items and retrieve one’s particulars either by email or telephone numbers.
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Why is JAMB finding it difficult to allow candidates have opportunity to replace their lost SIM CARD with a new one albeit those candidates would be charged or have their code sent simultaneously to both email addresses and telephone numbers?
Many of such victims of JAMB inefficiency have lost their opportunities of changing to their preferred institutions of learning/courses or update their profile with results as change windows are almost closed for all institutions which is another hiccup created by the Board.
JAMB management administrative malady at managing just 2 million people should not be rationale for thousands of young Nigerians forfeiting their admission, sacrifices, worthwhile time cum efforts and resources committed so far to secure admission to their preferred higher institutions of learning or courses.
The Federal government of Nigeria especially the Ministry of Education which supervises JAMB should prevail on the agency to create, urgently, an alternative platform such as email address to retrieve any code to be sent to the candidates.
The Software provider and or the JAMB ICT team should rectify their system or engage sound engineers who are specialists in such field so as not to dampen the hope of the future leaders of the Nation just because JAMB officials have probably attained pinnacle of their educational career.
Luqman Soliu,
President,
Rights and Freedom Advocates (RIFA)
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