Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Professor Is’haq Oloyede has said that 90 percent of candidates that sat for the Universities Matriculation Examination (UTME) are not qualified.
Professor Oloyede said that majority of the students are still awaiting their O’ level result and that some of them used JAMB to test their abilities.
The Registrar, who spoke today, Monday, at the Education Summit 2017 of the Ogun state government holding in Abeokuta said that some SS two and SS three students also partook in the exams.
According to him, elimination of corruption in the country would make the demand for white collar jobs less attractive even as he lamented that corruption had made the civil servants to get more than their monthly salaries.
He said that the present economic situation cannot sustain the public service workforce, saying:”it is not sustainable, especially when the campaign against corruption is on.
“It is not the 100,000 the Permanent Secretary takes home that make him the Permanent Secretary but the corruption associated with the office.
“As corruption is being eliminated, the truth of the matter is that white collar job will become less attractive and what makes it attractive is because of the money. Therefore let us improve on skills. Skill acquisition should be considered as curriculum not as extra curriculum.”
On the summit, Professor Oloyede said that there is need for Ogun state to setup its own Education Trust Fund, which to him, “will focus on assisting indigent students to fund their education and make their education affordable accordingly.
“There is need for Establishment of Tertiary Admission Monitoring Committee and I know of state like Kwara and such a committee in the Ministry of Education and their duty is to go to where their catchment is and ensure that their catchment quota is filled and they pursue it with vigor and they will tell them it is our right.
“They should also Setup Ethics group to monitor computer based centres. I was ashamed the greatest criminal was caught in Abeokuta to break into DBN JAMB”
The State Governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun said that his administration is committed to matching its huge investment in the education sector with better learning outcomes.
Amosun disclosed said in the last six years of his administration, education has consistently gotten the lion share of the State budget but expected that stakeholders would partner with government to justify the investment with positive results.
The Governor who noted that the State was fast becoming the education capital of Nigeria with 1,495 Public Primary Schools, 2144 approved Private Nursery and Primary Schools with a combined population of 717,911 students in primary schools as well as 10 State owned tertiary institutions adding that his government have had to deal with huge financial responsibilities in the sector than any State of the federation.
Amosun said that over 52 billion naira has been disbursed as subventions and grants to its 10 tertiary institutions across the State, just as he said that the State was putting up structures and funding materials to make education conducive for students as Human Capital Development of education staff was being addressed.
He said that it is time teachers, parents and other stakeholders in the sector collaborated with government to ensure that school children and graduates of tertiary institutions become useful to themselves and the society. [myad]
