The Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, Professor Ishaq Oloyede, expressed deep concern over the unethical practices of certain private secondary schools, accusing them of engaging in extortion and mismanagement of candidates partaking in the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination.

In an appearance on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily program on Monday, Professor Oloyede shed light on the exploitative actions of some private schools, stating, “There are private secondary schools who are extorting the candidates, they will take 10,000, 20,000 and they say JAMB form whereas they pay just 6,000 or 7,000 as the case may be. They are mismanaging the data of the candidates.”

He further emphasized the nature of UTME as a non-school-based examination, urging candidates to register individually at designated centers. 

Professor Oloyede pointed out the specific challenges faced by candidates with disabilities, reiterating the importance of individual registrations and dispelling requests for school-based examinations.

Addressing the issue of mismanagement of personal details, he cited an example involving the Federal Government College, Bwari, stating, “Even one institution, Federal Government College, Bwari, wrote to us, ‘Can you give them (people with disabilities) special registration?’ It is not possible, we are not school-based. We register individual candidates who are going into the university, we are not registering cohorts.”

In response to these challenges, Professor Oloyede detailed the creation of 11 UTME centers dedicated to Persons With Disabilities in 2023. 

He explained, “The idea is that those who are suffering from physical disabilities require support. We find out that they need special attention, and this special attention cannot be easily available in 774 centres across the country.”

He added, “So, what we therefore did was to create centres that are as close as possible to where they are coming from. We know that that is even a strain on them but in order to provide equal opportunity for them, what we have also done is to provide wherewithal for them and their guide to the centre and we created these centres across the country so that the closer they are to the place of abode of these candidates the better.”

This revelation comes on the heels of the Federal Government’s recent closure of 18 foreign universities in Nigeria, cautioning against enrollment in these institutions labeled as “degree mills” without proper licensing in the country.