The Registrar, Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Prof. Ishaq Oloyede on Tuesday said the board remitted N7.8bn to the Federal Government from the conduct of the 2016 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME). Prof. Ishaq Oloyede stated this when he received a delegation from the National Officers Council of Colleges of Education Academic Staff Union (COEASU) at JAMB's office, Bwari, Abuja.
He debunked claims that the board remitted only N5.2bn to the Federal Government between 2016 and 2017. He also called for robust cooperation between stakeholders in the education sector to address prevailing challenges in the sector.
According to him, “the board paid in N7.8 billion to Federal Government and not N5.2 billion. Let us work together and push government to do the needful so that education would be where it ought to be.
“When we identify obstacles, we could push government to amend some areas to enhance the sector. I do not see why we should have more than four credits before one can get into college of education, forgetting that it created an opportunity for people like us in the past. I assure you that UTME score does not determine the quality of one’s education; it is the environment that makes the difference obvious by segregating institutions.”
The President of COEASU, Nuhu Ogirima who spoke during the visit, called on the Board to review admission process into Colleges of Education as the prevailing system was affecting the education sector.
“Notwithstanding the overwhelming preference for admission into university, the provision for college of education as third choice in JAMB sought to obscure the system from others. After the selection of the very best from the first choice list, colleges of education are left with no choice in JAMB but the low performing candidates and this does not augur well for the teacher education system.
The union would, therefore, appreciate if JAMB, without prejudice to her establishment law, explores the possibility of collaborating with stakeholders in colleges of education “The collaboration would provide enabling environment that could improve the admission status of the colleges nationwide.”
