Why Admission Criteria Remain Unpredictable Even With the New JAMB Model

Reactions and counter-reactions have been trailing the release of the new JAMB admission screening model, which is supposed to be a guideline for admitting students into tertiary institutions in the country. What many do not know is that the admission process into Nigerian tertiary institutions has never been and will never be transparent or predictable as long as the current factors surrounding it remain. What I mean is that even with the current JAMB admission model, you still cannot confidently tell if you are qualified or not qualified for admission this year. Until the admission model becomes such that a candidate can confidently predict his or her admission before the admission list is released and it turns out so, then we still do not have a credible admission model. What makes you even think that institutions will religiously follow this model without undue compromise? By the way, don’t mind my tone. I’m only trying to bare the situation in black and white. JAMB has disclosed that institutions will only screen candidates sent to them by JAMB. The question is on what basis will JAMB determine the candidates to be sent to a particular institution? Don’t try to guess. The simple truth is that you don’t really know. As long as factors like catchment area, educationally less developed States (ELDS), admission quota, and other subtle ones remain determinants of admission into Nigerian tertiary institutions, I don’t think the new JAMB admission model makes any substantive difference because at the end of the day you still won’t be able to determine or tell what factors qualified or disqualified you for admission as the case may be. This has always been the situation in previous years, where by a candidate that scored above the required cut-off mark for a particular course is denied admission and another candidate that scored less is given admission into the same course. Do you think the new JAMB admission model will change any of that? No way! As long as the factors I mentioned earlier remain, nothing will change in that regard. In most countries, tertiary institutions have their requirements, once you meet the requirements, your admission is as sure as death. It’s that simple. But you cannot say that about Nigeria. May be we will develop to that level with time when our institutions have developed the capacity to accommodate the teeming population of admission seekers yearly. But for now, the present reality remains. If you are still wondering what I am driving at, let me spell it out; admission into Nigerian tertiary institutions as it stands is more like 50% effort and 50% game of luck. So instead of breaking your head over what the new JAMB admission model means and does not mean, you should rather make sure you put in your own part of the 50% and then count on luck, influence or what my church folks will call divine favour to produce the other 50% for you.

JAMB Proposed Model For Screening Of Recommended Candidates

We are dedicating this thread towards enlightening candidates seeking admission into higher institutions on what the recently proposed JAMB Admission screening model for admissions actually means. For the sake of emphasis and clarity, the raw facts will be omitted. What you have here is the interpretation of the raw facts to allay the confusion of many candidates. But if you are interested on the raw facts, you can find that HERE. If the proposed model for admission as proposed by JAMB is to be adopted for 2016/2017 admission process, below is how the admission process will run and all you should know about it. 1. JAMB must offer a candidate an admission before such candidates qualifies for screening in the institution he or she has been provisionally admitted. This means that institutions can only screening candidates sent to them by JAMB as having been provisionally admitted in such institution. 2. Institutions admission screening processes will now be based on point system. The first on the point system is the O'level grading. Candidates who have only one O-level result will stand a better chance of gaining admission than candidates with 2 results. One 0'level result = 10marks/points while two O'level results = 3 marks/points. Similarly, each grade will now have its equivalent points/marks in this manner; A=6 marks, B=4 marks, C=3 marks which means the having better grades in your O'level result gives you a better chance of securing admission. The next to be considered on the point system is your UTME Score. Candidates will be awarded marks/points based on their 180-200=20-23 marks, 200-250=24-33 points, 251-300=34-43, 300-400=44-60 points. The higher your score, the higher your chances of securing admission. This means that what we previously know as institutions cut-off-marks will now be known as institutions cut-off points which will be arrived at after putting all the aforementioned into consideration. 3. JAMB provisional admission is now a means to an end and not an end itself. This means that JAMB may offer a candidate a provisional admissions and such candidate will still be denied admission by his/her institution because he or she comes below the cut-off point for his/her course in that particular institution. For instance you may be given provisional admission to study MBBS in UNIBEN by JAMB having obtained a UTME score of 260. If your institution's cut-off point for medicine is 95 points and you come below that number of points after the screening, you will likely be denied admission. 4. Admission process will still put into considerations factors like catchment area and ELDS (Educationally Less Developed States) in determining the number of candidates admitted. Admission by merit is 45%, catchment area 35% and ELDS 20%. The issue of Science to arts ratio will still be in place. For universities Science to arts ratio will be 60:40 , Polytechnics 70:30. However for specialized institutions (Technology, Science Agriculture etc) it will be 100% related to their specialty. Also 90% of admission will go to UTME candidates while 10% will go to Direct Entry candidates. 5. Schools are still at liberty to charge a certain fee for the screening of candidates. However, the Board did not stipulate how much institutions are to charge for this.