Prof. Is-haq Oloyede, Registrar of the Joint Admission Matriculation Board, labelled some universities in Nigeria that operate daily part-time programmes as illegal on Monday.
Oloyode, who was on a fact-finding expedition to the Ibadan Zonal Office of JAMB in Oyo State, stated that most of the allegations levied against his officials are baseless.
He claimed that the majority of the affected students are to blame for their current situation, rather than JAMB.
The registrar stated that most students, in their eagerness to gain admission to higher institutions, took shortcuts that have now backfired.
Oloyode said, “The complaint was that at the Ibadan Zonal Office, the officers are not acting well and that there was no programme devoted to the Ibadan office. So, I have to come here to see what is going on because the impression is that people here are not responsible.
“However, from what we have seen, it is now clear that they are grappling with things that even the system would not have envisaged.
“How do you explain a case of somebody who was given what could aptly be described as an under-tabled admission seven years ago and did not appear until now?
“Another case is that of somebody who had changed his name more than seven years ago and he/she is now coming back to us to effect a change. It is just like going back to primary school that I have since changed my name and I need another certificate.”
On the admission for Higher National Diploma programmes, Oloyede disclosed that the board has nothing to do with the process.
He said the law does not allow JAMB to register candidates for any of the HND programmes.
“You are offered admission to run the OND programme on a part-time basis now that you want to apply for the HND programmes, you want the board to change your OND from part-time to full-time. How do we do that?
“You can now see the other dimension of what they called a daily part-time programme which is another illegality. A situation where the institution is allowed to admit only 200 candidates but goes ahead to admit an additional 400 candidates on a part-time basis.
“At that time, the board was not reckoning with them and the institution went ahead to register them as full-time students, graduating with full-time students, forgetting that they are registered on a part-time basis.
“The board has made returns to the NYSC about the students that are graduating that year. The point is that you don’t expect JAMB to change the daily part-time students to full-time,” he said.