Tertiary institutions predominated upon to postpone the screening of admission chasers for the 2020/2021 academic session.
The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) and heads of all tertiary institutions billed for a meeting today to deliberate the option of shifting the opening of admission processes to a new date.
The date may be chosen in September for the kick-off of admission procedures for 2020/2021 academic session.
On the table for dialogue is the option of institutions one or the other delaying or prolonging their screening exercises to house candidates taking the 2020 O’ level examinations directed by the West African Examinations Council (WAEC), National Examination Council and National Business and Technical Examination Board (NABTEB) put on the table for the duration of the meeting.
In June, through its policy meeting at its Headquarters in Bwari, Abuja, the board declared that this year’s admission would start on August 22.
The shutting down of schools as a result of the outbreak of the Coronavirus pandemic is affecting about 1,352,988 candidates who scored 120 and above in this year’s Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).
The majority of them are candidates with awaiting results. The same relates to 930,305 candidates that scored 160 and above.
JAMB, in its weekly bulletin released by its Head of Information and Media Dr. Fabian Benjamin, said: “As a responsible organisation whose mantra is equity and fairness, the board desires that every aspiring candidate who had its UTME be given equal opportunity to compete with his/her peers for the available openings.
“This is the reason for its call for another meeting with all the institutions with a view to amending the earlier mutually agreed date for the conduct of Post-UTME screening and other processes.”
