Polytechnics to continue screening admission seekers

THE chairman, Association of Rectors of Polytechnics and Colleges of Technology in Nigeria (COHEADS), Alhaji Mas’ud Elelu, has said that Polytechnics and Colleges of Technology in the country will still conduct another screening for their prospective students after the JAMB test.

It is recalled that the Federal Government had reportedly stopped tertiary institutions across the country from conducting post UTME screening.

Speaking with journalists in Ilorin at the weekend, the chairman of COHEADS who is also the Rector, Kwara State Polytechnic, said his school would conduct “pre-admission security and certificate verification screening” for those seeking admission into the Polytechnic.

The screening, according to Alhaji Elelu, is necessary to avoid admitting applicants of questionable character.

“We need to be careful in order not to admit students who had been expelled from other institutions and as well confirm the genuineness of applicants’ certificates,” he said.

Elelu said the institution devised the new method of screening applicants “based on its experience.”

He said the methods was to guide against admitting students with fake certificate or cultists expelled from other schools who might want to seek admission into the institution.

Asked if the screening would be free, Elelu declared that it would have “financial implication.”

Similarly, the rector disclosed that the institution would soon begin a clamp down on operators of cybercafé on its campus, following the arrest of one of them with the school’s forged audit stamp and document carrying forged signature.

He said the cybercafé operator was arrested following intelligence gathering from the institution’s internal security network.

The suspect, he said had been handed over to the Department of State Security Services (DSSS) for further investigation.

Elelu warned that any staff or students found culpable in the issue would not be spared.

As parts of its anti-corruption crusade, the rector said two staff of the institution have been sent to the headquarters of Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) for training.