The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) is not the cause of the non-mobilisation of some Higher National Diploma graduates with Part-Time National Diploma by the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), the Board’s Registrar, Prof. Is-haq Oloyede has clarified.
He spoke at a meeting with the leadership of the National Association of Polytechnic Students (NAPS) at the JAMB National Headquarters, Bwari, Abuja.
Oloyede explained that the Board’s mandate was limited to conducting examinations for admission into universities, National Diploma (ND), and Nigerian Certificate in Education (NCE) programmes, not HND programmes.
The JAMB registrar said the Board, therefore, had no data to facilitate the HND students’ entry into the NYSC scheme and advised NAPS to channel their grievances to appropriate quarters for redress and solutions.
The Registrar also clarified that JAMB only admitted students for ND programmes noting that once the candidates graduated and sought HND admission, JAMB had no further role as HND admissions were conducted by individual institutions.
He wondered why JAMB was being criminalised and targeted by the association for an action that was outside its purview, stating that the action of NAPS was born out of sheer ignorance of the mandate of the Board.
“You are wasting your time talking to someone who has no involvement in the matter. If something affects you, the first step is to identify the root cause so that you don’t apply the wrong solution to a problem that does not exist.
“Our role stops at admissions for National Diploma (ND); we have no record of HND students,” he said.
He advised the delegation to study the admissions guidelines with a view to holding talks with the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) for a solution.
Prof Oloyede also addressed concerns over part-time polytechnic programmes, stating that his criticism was only directed at “Daily Part-Time” schemes designed to exploit students.
He blamed some of the challenges facing the affected students on institutions which bypass the Central Admissions Processing System(CAPS) to facilitate their admission of more than the number of candidates specified by the NBTE.
He said, “NBTE would ask them to admit 100 students for instance, they would take that 100 and register them for full-time ND. They would admit another 1000 and they would be teaching them in the same class and would say those are part-time.”
He disclosed that the consequence of such an action is that there is no correlation between the ND products and their HND counterparts, which in most cases are acquired in different institutions.
While proffering some practical solutions to the impasse, Prof Oloyede urged NAPS to thoroughly investigate the problem to uncover the root causes and solutions.
Convinced that their approach adopted in tackling the seemingly challenges was inappropriate the NAPS President, l Ridwan Opeyemi, absolved the JAMB Registrar of any wrong-doing and appealed to JAMB to help put a stop to the ugly practice that was robbing polytechnic students of the opportunity of participating in the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC).
He expressed satisfaction with the registrar’s explanations and pledged to engage the appropriate authorities towards resolving the impasse.
Earlier Opeyemi had explained that many students who graduated with HND certificates from various polytechnics and had regularised with JAMB were yet to be mobilised for the scheme on account of their improper admission status.