ASUU: JAMB sells new forms despite botched admission proces

Public university lecturers have been on strike for five months with no sign of a resolution to the crisis.

But the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board has added a new twist to the case, with its commencement of sale of forms to candidates seeking admission into tertiary institutions next year.

This is happening when most universities are yet to conclude their admission process for the 2013/2014 academic year, while others are still in the process of registration.

Therefore, some Nigerians have questioned JAMB’s decision when a set of fresh students are still awaiting their first lectures at the affected universities.

Ms. Taiwo Ogunyale and her fellow freshers are one week into their registration at the University of Lagos, Akoka. Ogunyale, who was admitted to study Microbiology, criticised JAMB’s sale of new forms, saying it could lead to a backlog of candidates awaiting admission into universities.

“Selling forms at this time when universities are still on strike is not that good. So I don’t think it will help matters because most universities are not ready to admit new students. It will only lead to a backlog,” she said.

In 2013, a total of 1,503,931 candidates sat for JAMB’s Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examinations. In the previous year, 1,493,604 candidates sat for the examination.

Meanwhile, it is expected that at least, 1,500,000 candidates would sit for the examination slated for April 2014.

Considering the sheer size of candidates sitting for the examination annually, many identified the expected financial gains as a major factor responsible for JAMB’s decision.

For instance, Mr. Oluwatobi Tijani, another fresher, recalled buying form for the 2013 examination for N5,000. With that in mind, Tijani concluded that JAMB must be after the proceeds from the sale of the forms.

He said, “JAMB is just using it (sale of forms) to make money from candidates. I heard some candidates even paid up to N20,000 for late collection of forms last year, so they are just exploiting us.

“I expected JAMB to liaise with the schools and the lecturers and this might require holding on for a while to see how things would turn out before selling fresh forms.”

At N5,000 on each candidate that sat for examination early this year,  JAMB raked in about N7.5bn revenue from form sales alone. Read more