Prof Ishaq Oloyede, Registrar of the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) on Tuesday issued a stern warning to the management of tertiary institutions, especially universities, to stop admission of underaged persons, describing the development as “illegal”.
Prof. Oloyede gave the warning at the opening of the seventh biennial conference of the Committee of Pro-Chancellors of State-Owned Universities in Nigeria in Lagos.
Speaking on the theme of the conference, ‘Effective University Governance: Role of Stakeholders’, the JAMB Registrar said illegal admission, such as admitting underaged, should be stopped.
According to him, for the sake of accountability, data protection and integrity of the nation, this act needed to stop because anything that was irregular was illegal.
“About two months ago, I received a letter from a European country to confirm if a student actually graduated from a particular university because she is 15 years old and applied for a postgraduate course.
“The question they asked me is “Is this possible in Nigeria?
“I had to call the Vice Chancellor of the institution and he confirmed the student graduated from the university but was not admitted by JAMB.
“He had to include that he was not the VC at the time the student was admitted,” Oloyede said.
He noted that state-owned universities must do a lot in this situation because they constituted more in number than federal universities.
“Also illegal admission of diploma students needs to stop because last year, we admitted 9,000 diploma students; I was alarmed that about 3,000 students came from a particular university.
“Every one of us should be accountable because all these acts can damage our education system,” Oloyede said.
