Joint Admission and Matriculation Board Maiden Edition of National Tertiary Admissions’ Performance-Merit Award 2018

Joint Admission and Matriculation Board Maiden Edition of National Tertiary Admissions’ Performance-Merit Award 2018   The Joint Admission and Matriculation Board, established by Act No 2 of 1978 with the mandate to eliminate multiple application, multiple entrance examinations and multiple admission and to consequently determine matriculation requirements, conduct matriculation examinations and admit suitably qualified candidates to tertiary institutions in Nigeria. There have been amendments to the enabling Act over the years. The enabling law of the board is currently coded in Act No.33 of 1989. The board came into existence when there were thirteen (13) universities in Nigeria, in over four (4) decades of it’s existence, the board Coordinates the matriculation process and admission to over eight hundred (800) tertiary institutions and the number of candidates has increased from 97, 000 to 1.8 m between 1978 to 2019. The introduction of the Central Admission Processing System ( CAPS) in 2017 which led to the automation of the admission processes devoid of any human interaction or influence aimed at ensuring that candidates that genuinely prepared and excelled in their matriculation examinations and in other qualifying examinations are suitably placed in tertiary institutions, taking into consideration their choice and dependent on the available vacancies without any form of discrimination. The Central Admission Processing System has among other benefits, improved the process of selection for admission in tertiary institutions and this has received enormous accolades from stakeholders in the education sector. The Hon. Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu in his remark after the welcome address by the chairman, Governing Board, Joint Admission and Matriculation Board, Dr. Emmanuel A. Ndukwe applauded the initiative and charged institutions to be excellent driven. Prof. Is-haq Olanrewaju Oloyede, OFR, FNAL, Registrar,JAMB in his brief on the award initiative and introduction of winners says, in a bid to sustain the tempo of excellent and encourage institutions that have performed creditably well in the admission exercise as allowed within the ambit of the law, the board, at its 2017 policy meeting chaired by the Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu announced the plan to institute merit award for excellent performance of institutions during the conduct of admission exercise. The 2018 policy meeting also applauded and endorsed the merit award initiative. He furthered, as statutorily required, the governing board of the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board considered the proposal and subsequently approved Five (5) categories of award and prizes with effect from the 2018 admission exercise. Management committee was constituted to carry out the assessment of all institutionsthat participated in the 2018 Admission exercise in a bid to ensuring transparency in the process of selection the Registrar says. On the vein, the Registrar said, the committee adopted globally acceptable criteria which were characterised and lace with accurate data, fairness, equity and objective. In ensuring that the monetary award attached to the prize is utilized by the winner institutions in ways that would improve the service delivery of mandate of the institutions, particularly in areas of teaching, Assessment, Research, Learning, Sports Development, Environmental Matters and Knowledge dissemination, the Registrar says, the governing board has also approved that each winner should submit a project which execution ( by the institution) is not more than Twenty-Five Million (#25,000,000:00) on which the award would be expended, adding that it is their hope that appropriate budget provision would be made to quadruple the amount for the next edition. He added, on completion of the project or procurement of item or service, the Board’s support should be acknowledged with a conspicuous inscription of the Board’s logo on the project with caption titled. The award was presented by the Vice President, Fed. Republic of Nigeria, His Excellency, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, SAN, GCON through his representative. In a response on behalf of the recipients, the Vice Chancellor, University of Maiduguri, thanks Joint Admission and Matriculation Board and the fed. Min., Education for the initiative and assured the education communities of their commitment to excellent. The Vice President in his remark says the development of every nation is dependent on the quality of education given to it populace and assured Nigerians of the federal government commitment however tasks institutions and stakeholders to be excellent driven. The ag. Director of Admissions, JAMB, Dr. Mahmud Adamu Mahmud in his vote of thanks thanked the Buhari led Fed. Govt. The Vice President, Ministers, Education, Royal fathers present, stakeholders, National Judiciary Institute and the gentle men of the press . In an interaction with Tyoor F.M.T, Director of Academic Planning, Air Force Institute of Technology, Kaduna. He says, the merit award will further spur up healthy competition among institutions for Excellence and the ethos of compliance to standard practices. When asked by our reporters on the institute’s catchment areas, Dr. Tyoor F.M.T says, the Air Force Institute of Technology was established by federal government law to provide tertiary education to Nigerians hence it catchment covered the entire country and admission are given to all Nigerians on merit in a very transparent and credible manner to all Nigerians who are eligible.