The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board said it has discovered at least 1,665 fake A-level results during the 2023 Direct Entry registration. The board also said the regime for the verification of A-level results was characterized by corruption linked to the system.
The Registrar, Prof. Is-haq Oloyede, made this known when he received the leadership of the National Association of Nigeria Colleges of Education Students at his office on Tuesday in Abuja. He said: “Of this figure, 397 were from Colleges of Education, 453 were university degrees and the rest were other A-level certificates. It should be a major concern if no one respects the certificate one holds; It is therefore necessary to protect the integrity of A-level certificates used to guarantee access through measures that can stand the test of time”.
The Registrar recalled that in the past, when a candidate applied for DE, the Board simply asked the awarding institutions to conduct the necessary screening and due diligence. He stated that JAMB was shocked by the revelations of Bayero University, Kano, where out of 148 Direct Entry applications at the institution, only six of the certificates forwarded for processing were genuine.
The registrar added that it was the discovery of the fraud that prompted a meeting of critical stakeholders, who came together to map out ways to combat the menace.
Part of the proposed measures, he said, was the establishment of a task force for A-level result verification and the establishment of a common platform for the verification of A-level results and certificates. He said the platform is reliable and easy to use as it only takes five minutes to verify a given certificate. Oloyede also disclosed that to underscore the importance attached to the exercise, the board has introduced a, “No Verification, No Admission policy”.
While listing 15 institutions that have not adequately complied with the boards verification requests, he stated that the concerned institutions, with more than 20 unverified candidates, should pre-verify candidates who apply with their certificates before completing their DE registration process could complete.
According to the registrar, the change to the ongoing DE registration is that candidates can register while the school verifies them at the back end.
However, he stated that the fifteen institutions, which were yet to fully comply with the requirements, would be required to pre-verify the holders of their certificates before completing their DE registration.
Earlier, the President of NANCES, Eegunjobi Samuel, commended the work the Registrar is doing, especially in terms of restoring sanity, integrity and credibility to the countrys examination and admission processes.
He disclosed that the association was at the JAMB headquarters to file complaints from their members over the apparently persistent challenges they are experiencing in the ongoing 2024 DE registration, and to call for more DE registration centers.
Ugochi Olivia Ubah is an Educator and a Writer