The Registrar, Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Is-haq Oloyede, has said parents of candidates sitting for the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), have been the Board’s major challenge.
He described as alarming the desperation of parents and level at which they go to ensure that their children get admissions at all cost, irrespective of the consequences involved. Oloyede pointed out that the situation has continued to give the Board consistent concern.
The Registrar said this on Wednesday during a meeting with the Presidential Advisory Committee against Corruption in Abuja.
”The greatest problem we have is with the parents, I do not have problems with the candidates. But the parents have gone haywire.
”They compromise the process because while the students are writing the examinations, you see some of the parents seeking for any assistance that can be given to make their children pass.”
Oloyede recalled that during the 2018 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Board Examinations (UTME), some parents of candidates who were caught for engaging in malpractices did not play the proper parental role.
According to him, while one mother requested that her daughter’s mark be automatically increased because a Test Centre operator tried to molest her, another mother pushed her eldest son to write the examination for the younger one.
“Some parents go as far as paying huge sums of money into fraudulent accounts online to upgrade their children’s results.
”We have advertised recently, that anybody who pays into such accounts would be tracked and disqualified because these fraudsters openly advertise that if you want help on JAMB pay into certain accounts.
”Parents are paying into these accounts but we have involved the Department of State Services and the Police and some of them have been arrested already.”
The act, he said, has continued to give the board a second view of what transpires outside its domain, through which it is able to monitor the illegal operations.
Oloyede reiterated that the Board would continue to give its best in ensuring that its credibility is sustained, despite the challenges at hand.
Speaking on the issue of cut off mark, the Registrar explained that it is necessary to understand that it is the point that allows you to know at what point you are not allowed “into the basket.”
He further explained that the cut off point goes beyond attaining just the UTME scores but includes all the requirements of the admission process.
He explained this varies from one institution to another, adding that people must erase from their minds, the perception that the higher a cut off mark of an institution, the more credible the institution is.
