Direct Entry: Candidates besiege JAMB office, allege poor “inhumane” treatment

Admission seekers into Nigerian universities willing to obtain the Direct Entry forms of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) have, within the week, besieged the Lagos office of the examination body, accusing it of subjecting them to difficulties and inconvenience.

A video shared with PREMIUM TIMES on Thursday showed a crowd of applicants arriving at the JAMB office in Ikoyi as early as 5 a.m., while others were seen sleeping on the road and open ground near the JAMB office’s premises.

The applicants are struggling to register for direct entry ahead of the 13 May deadline.

JAMB announced it would close the registration portal on Saturday, 13 May, after a one-week extension.

The DE registration, earlier scheduled to end on 20 April, was extended to continue after the computer-based Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), which ended on 6 May.

Meanwhile, the examination body has blamed the candidates for waiting until the last minute before showing up for registration.

JAMB spokesperson Fabian Benjamin, however, said the board would ensure that all candidates willing to register for the DE, particularly those who have purchased their PINs, are registered.

”All candidates will register” – JAMB

In an interview with PREMIUM TIMES, Mr Benjamin said it is typical for candidates to besiege registration centres at the last minute, noting that the JAMB offices have been “empty” before this time.

He explained that the board is adopting new initiatives in this year’s DE registration to curb the use of fake A-level results by candidates, a situation he said is rampant.

He recalled how Bayero University, Kano expelled almost 200 students for presenting fake A-level results.

He said the board was alarmed by the situation and, therefore, will ensure that all registration is conducted in its offices to help the board understand the antics of those using forged results.

He said: “And don’t forget that we introduced measures to check some of those recoveries that we’ve made in recent times. We’ve come to discover that some of the most abused process certifications are all these A-level certificates,” he said in a telephone conversation on Friday.

“What we’ve done is to ensure that registration is only conducted in our own offices. It’s just an entry measure, but this year we are trying to use that as a pilot programme to see what is actually happening –how these candidates, these fake, forged A-level results, were able to actually enter into the system.”

By next year, he said the board would’ve discovered “all their antics” and come up with a measure to address it and probably allow private registration centres.

He, however, said the board would ensure that all candidates willing to register for the DE are allowed to register.

He said: “Within 24 hours or thereabouts, we would come up with a measure that the candidates that gather in our offices have the opportunity to register. We would find a way of either expanding or finding a way of accommodating them so that every candidate that wants to register for the DE is given the opportunity to do that,” he said.

“When we started the registration, the offices were nearly empty, and candidates were not coming. Don’t forget; the DE registration is not a high-tech registration; we usually have just about 100,000 and sometimes 200,000 candidates registering for the whole year. So, you can imagine where these people are coming from at this particular point in time. But as a responsible organisation, we will do everything possible, especially for candidates who have purchased the PIN to register.”

Acceptable A-level results

JAMB also listed the acceptable A-level results for this year’s DE registration.

They include a university diploma, Ordinary National Diploma (OND), National Diploma (ND), Nigeria Certificate in Education (NCE), Higher National Diploma (HND) and a university degree.

Others are; Interim Joint Matriculation Board (IJMB), Joint Universities Preliminary Examination Board (JUPED), NABTEB Advanced National Business Certificate, NABTEB Advanced National Technical Certificate, NABTEB GCE-A’ Level (2015 – 2021), Higher Islamic Studies Certificate by NBAIS, International Baccalaureate and the National Registered Nurse/ Midwife certificates.

Qosim Suleiman is a reporter at Premium Times in partnership with Report for the World, which matches local newsrooms with talented emerging journalists to report on under-covered issues around the globe