JAMB registrar warns varsities, others against illegal admissions

AS the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board commenced on Monday the sale of forms for the 2020 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination, the board’s registrar, Professor Is-haq Oloyede, has warned tertiary institutions against admitting candidates outside the Central Admissions Processing System (CAPS), saying any admission done outside the platform is illegal, null and void.

Oloyede in the weekly bulletin of the board made available to newsmen in Abuja wondered why institutions should jettison CAPS which is an automated platform meant to ease the conduct of admission and restore sanity in the exercise.

He noted that before the introduction of CAPS in 2017, institutions were provided with laptops for the conduct of their admission exercise at a fee of N25,000; but that from 2017 to date, the board had not only made CAPS available but had also made it free.

Professor Oloyede said the platform makes every stakeholder involved in the process an active player. It also offers candidates the opportunity to accept or reject admission, guarantees fairness and helps keep track of admissions, among other benefits.

He explained that the CAPS platform provides numerous advantages, and urged institutions to embrace it with a view to taking the education sector to the next level.

The JAMB registrar said various reports by the board were surprising, that some institutions are conducting admissions on their individual portals.

This, he said, could undermine the hopes and aspirations of candidates and stifle the nation’s quest for qualitative education in the long run.

He, therefore, warned that any institution that flagrantly abuses this “well-conceived instrument” would have its admissions rejected.

He said, “Institutions are not permitted to conduct admission on their portals. Any admission done outside CAPS is illegal and will not be condoned by JAMB.”

Oloyede also frowned on institutions taking fresh candidates’ biometrics or requesting candidates to upload their results on their portals, stating that all these have been made available to the institutions on CAPS.

He stated that any institution involved in these acts is working against the Federal Government’s directive on Ease of Doing Business and rendering qualitative service.