80% students not qualified to write JAMB, says Registrar

•Jega declares bad leadership, others as bane of higher education

Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) registrar, Prof. Is-haq Oloyede, has derclared that 80 per cent of the 1.5 candidates, who apply to write JAMB examination annually do not have the qualifications to sit for it. Oloyede added that 40 per cent of candidates, who pass JAMB annually, did not have the qualification to study in the university.
He spoke at the 2016 Nigeria Higher Education Summit with the theme: “Exploiting diversity, differentiation and quality assurance in revitalising the Nigerian higher education system,” in Abuja. The event was organised by the Committee of Vice-Chancellors of Nigerian Federal Universities in collaboration with Trust Africa.
“Forty per cent of them do not have qualification. They may pass JAMB, but they do not have the O’Level requirements to go into the universities.
“By the time you mop up the whole thing, what will remain is not this big figure (1.5 million) that gives us the type of shameful statistics you parade all over Africa,” he said.
Former Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Prof. Attahiru Jega identified leadership crisis and the misplacement of priorities as some of the banes of Nigeria’s higher education. Jega, who was the chairman of the summit and a former vice chancellor of Bayero University, Kano, identified instability, turmoil in universities and lack of focus, as other challenges facing higher education. He also acknowledged poor funding as one of the problems facing higher education in the country.
The former INEC chair called for adequate funding of the sector to enable the universities to contribute to national growth. According to him, some of the innovations and development in education in developed countries were yet to materialise in Nigeria and Africa because of some of the challenges facing the country and the continent.
He said: “Nigeria in particular, our higher education has been characterised by misplaced priorities, by instability, by turmoil and of course by clear lack of focus by those who are supposes to direct national and public affairs and to help ensure that education contributes to the transformation of our national economy as well as making us competitive in the global economy.
“Since 1980, we have been struggling; we have been trying, persuading to get our leaders to give the priority that higher education requires, education in general and higher education in particular.” Also, the Secretary General of Association of Vice Chancellors of Nigerian Universities, Prof. Michael Faborode, said the researches done by Nigerian universities needs to be celebrated. “Let us appreciate these things and let us bring them to the fore so that we will not just be mourning over the challenges alone; let us celebrate the successes,” he added.