The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board has accused some tertiary institutions of aiding candidates with irregular or illegal admissions to falsify records towards mobilisation for the National Youth Service Corps.
JAMB made the allegation in a letter addressed to vice-chancellors, provosts and registrars of tertiary institutions in the country.
In the letter signed by its Director of Admissions, Mohammed Bolaji, JAMB said it noticed that institutions continued to admit candidates outside the Central Admissions Processing Unit.
On Sunday, JAMB gave all institutions with illegal admissions outside CAPS an ultimatum to make disclosure.
In the letter to the heads of higher institutions sighted on Tuesday by our correspondent in Abuja, JAMB said, “This recent move is aimed at curbing illegal admissions and falsification of records. Any institution found to have admitted any candidate outside CAPS after 2020, will be made to face appropriate sanctions in addition to the forfeiture of the said admission with its legal implications.
“The board has discovered widespread and unwholesome practices whereby some institutions were colluding with candidates to falsify vital records, such as backdated year of entry and subsequent age adjustments, to utilise certificates of genuine candidates with similar names and to facilitate illegal admissions carried out before 2017 to enable participation of fake candidates in the National Youth Service Corps scheme.
“Similarly, the board has observed that some institutions continue to admit candidates outside CAPS after 2020 and subsequently apply for Condonment of Undisclosed Illegal Institutional Admissions backdating such recent admissions to 2020 to fit within the timeframe of CUIIA.
“This is an abuse of the waiver granted by the former Minister of Education on the recommendation of JAMB.
“The board has considered measures to close these abused windows while still reaffirming that CAPS is the only authorised platform for admissions.”
Bolaji said following the discovery of the illegality, JAMB had decided it “will no longer entertain absorption of (pre-2017) illegal admissions through the window of Condonment of Illegal Admissions without Registration Number.”
“The window (for mop-up of pre-2017 unofficial/unrecorded admissions) has been on now for seven years and is being abused. The board is terminating the aspect of the CUIIA process (2017-2020 illegal admissions) that allows completely unregistered (without registration) candidates to be introduced to the system,” Bolaji said.
