BY TEMI OHAKWE, ABUJA – The Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, has given assurance that the Board would rescue the dwindling condition of the Colleges of Education by re-addressing the admission processes.
Oloyede, who gave the assurance at a three-day Stakeholders Summit on Repositioning the Colleges of Education for improved efficiency and effectiveness, therefore called for the cancellation of Mathematics as requirement for candidates who seek admission for Arts and Humanity courses into Colleges of Education (COEs).
He said; “The major issue and the problem is systemic because if you require an applicant to have mathematics and physics to study Yoruba, Hausa, Igho or Arabic, I think that is the problem. We need to be realistic about issues of prerequisite”.
The JAMB Registrar also identified informal route of admitting candidates into COEs as major challenge affecting the system, and therefore warned major actors to be sincere about the admission processes.
Speaking on teaching profession, Oloyede said a lot of steps have been taken towards the enhancement and called for genuine implementation of reward system that would be favourable to all teachers.
He identified implementation problems and emphasis the place of proper coordination of policies to prevent counter productivity.
According Oloyede; “A lot of steps have been taken towards enhancement of the teaching profession. I look forward to actualisation of those steps. I believe that teachers are in this condition because of the reward system and the reward system is unfavourable to the teachers partly because of the huge numbers of teachers involved.
“If we can genuinely raise a reward system for teachers, a number of steps have been announced by Federal Government, if those steps are actualised and adequately implemented, there will be problem in implementation because it will generate another raise to 70 years.
“In my own view, what we need to do is to coordinate and refine the implementation in such a way that there will not be counter productivity,” Oloyede enthused.
Those measures being suggested by the JAMB are quite germane, but not enough. JAMB itself also contributes to the dwindling enrolment as a result of its policy of making candidates pay multiply as charges, especially for Change of Institution. After JAMB had given a Candidate of choosing two Universities, two Polytechnics and two COEs as 1st & 2nd choices for each of the
Those measures being suggested by the JAMB are quite germane, but not enough. JAMB itself also contributes to the dwindling enrolment as a result of its policy of making candidates pay multiply as charges, especially for Change of Institution. For its UTME, JAMB gives a Candidate the opportunity of choosing two Universities, two Polytechnics and two COEs as 1st choice and 2nd choice institutions in each of the three categories/tiers. We know full well that no candidate that has O’ Level results that qualified h/her for admission into the University would opt for COE only as his/her First Choice institution – more so that the options are available for each of the tiers! Then, why is JAMB insisting on payment of another money as change of Institution by those candidates who could not make admissions into the Universities and who are eminently qualified for admission into the polytechnic/COE (and have one of them as their first choice too)?! By so doing, JAMB has made the discontinuation of separate JAMB Examinations for Polytechnics and COEs meaningless and unnecessary. Most candidates whose parents cannot afford payment of additional fees for Change of Institutions to COEs do resign fate. JAMB should therefore, revert to the old practice of conducting the Entrance Examinations into the various tiers of our tertiary institutions separately as one of the solutions to the problem of dwindling enrolment into the COES.