The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has released guidelines to all heads of tertiary institutions for the 2020 admission exercise.

The board also told all institutions to begin admission for candidates for first and second choices on August 21, 2020.

In the document sent to all vice-chancellors, rectors and provosts of universities, polytechnics and colleges of education, the JAMB Registrar, Ishaq Oloyede, warned against flouting decisions of its 2020 policy meeting, held on June 16.

Mr Oloyede insisted that all admissions must be carried out in an honest and transparent manner.

“The 1st and 2nd Choices Admission-Exercise be conducted for all institutions from 21st August 2020 to a later date that would be determined by the Federal Ministry of Education and communicated to all the institutions,” he said, adding that “the uncertainties of the COVID-19 make it impossible to fix a terminal date.”

The guideline
Mr Oloyede explained that the guideline for the 2020 admission exercise is expected to guide all the participants in the admission process.

“All heads of institutions and admission officers are advised to carefully study and understand the content of the document with a view to implementing it fully for a seamless and transparent admission exercise,” he said.

According to him, the decisions, as well as the policy directives as contained in the address of the education minister at the policy meeting, shall serve as the guidelines for the 2020 admission exercise.

“All Heads of Tertiary Institutions are to ensure total compliance with the guidelines. Sanctions shall be applied to institutions that violate the decisions,” he warned

CAPS is important
The JAMB chief said the admission-exercise for the 2020/2021 Academic Session would be conducted on the Central Admission Processing System (CAPS).

The CAPS is an admission processing system that is geared towards ensuring quality control, transparency and credibility of the admission process.

JAMB tasked the three higher education regulatory bodies – The National Universities Commission (NUC), the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) and the National Commission for Colleges of Education (NCCE ) – to collaborate with it to ensure full compliance with the guidelines.

The board said it has stopped illegal or irregular admission in any form, saying all admissions must pass through it.

“All applications for admissions to First Degree, National Diploma, National Innovation Diploma and the Nigeria Certificate in Education into Full Time, Distance Learning, Part-Time, Sandwich, must be processed only through the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB),” it said.

The board said institutions involved in advertising or selling application forms for admissions into the programmes should stop henceforth.

“Institutions should advise candidates to apply to them through JAMB. Duplication of application forms is NOT allowed, No Institution is allowed to publish, announce, exhibit or paste any name(s) of the admitted candidate without prior approval of the name on CAPS,” the board said.

On advertorials, JAMB said institutions that desire to place advertisement can do so by advising candidates who applied for the current UTME to change to their institution as First (1st) Choice rather than requesting the candidates to purchase another application.

“This is to prevent the issue of double registration which is a violation of the JAMB mandate,” Mr Oloyede said.

“No institution will be allowed to recommend or admit any candidate whose
UTME score is below the following threshold: Degree — 160; ND — 120; NCE — 100; NID — 100.”

He said no institution can graduate a candidate who has not been a full
time student of that institution for at least 2 consecutive years.

“Affiliated institutions are to adopt the same minimum UTME scores as the mother institutions,” he said.

FG prepares for resumption
Schools across Nigeria are currently shut due to the coronavirus pandemic.

However, the federal government recently released guidelines that must be met by all schools ahead of resumption.

The guidelines for the safe reopening of schools and learning facilities after the COVID-19 pandemic outlined actions, measures, and requirements needed for resumption.

The government also gave school proprietors across the country up to July 29 to meet specific guidelines set towards the reopening of schools.