The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has scrapped special concessions and registration procedures previously granted to candidates with albinism for the 2026 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), citing abuse of the privilege to perpetrate examination malpractice.
The Board also cautioned faith-based higher schools to explicitly state their religious identity at the time of admission, stating it is deceptive to portray themselves as secular and then impose religious norms on students.
According to Vanguard, these decisions were made on Saturday during a meeting in Ikeja, Lagos, between JAMB management, led by its Registrar, Prof. Isaq Oloyede, and education commissioners from the 36 states of thefederation and the federal capital territory.
Oloyede stated that the conference was called to analyze and evaluate prior admission operations.
He mentioned that despite safeguards introduced by the Board, some individuals remained determined to circumvent the system.
“We have stopped some concessions we gave albino candidates. This is because some are using artificial intelligence to manipulate the registration process to look like they are albinos because of the consideration we gave them.
“Last year alone, over 7,000 claimed to be albinos. We have stopped special registration procedures for albinos,” he said.
Speaking on complaints from candidates admitted into some private institutions over compulsory religious instruction, Oloyede urged faith-based schools to be transparent.
“Faith-based institutions should declare from the onset what they are, so that whoever applies there will know what he is going to meet there. But some don’t do that. They will pretend to be secular, but once students are admitted, trouble will begin over religious instruction and injunctions.
“If you are a faith-based institution, say so. The law allows you to set up faith-based schools,” he said.
At last year’s UTME, where the highest-scoring candidate was ultimately discovered to be a 300-level university student, the JAMB registrar stated that investigations revealed that some undergraduates take the exam to change courses or help others gain admission.
“Students who are already in school but want to change courses and are applying again must declare and disclose their status.
“We have found that some candidates already in school are writing the examination for other candidates. Last year, the candidate who scored the highest was found to be a 300-level student in the university.
“Henceforth, any candidate found engaging in such an act and who fails to disclose that he is already in school but wants to change course will be disqualified and will also lose his current admission,” he said.
Oloyede noted that federal government-owned universities allocate 45 percent based on merit, 20 percent based on catchment region, and 20 percent to educationally deprived states, with the remaining slots reserved for other considerations.
“Each owner or state has the right to decide what its admission criteria will be. But for states, we encourage them to allocate at least 10 percent to merit, regardless of where the candidates come from.
“This is to diversify the student population and admit eggheads from different communities,” he said.
He chastised certain governments for constructing new colleges while not fully utilizing their admission quotas at existing federal institutions.
Regarding minor candidates, Oloyede stated that the minimum entry age remained 16 years, with an attestation process in place for exceptional instances.
“Last year, about 42,000 claimed to be underage. After evaluation, only 78 met the criteria and were admitted. We are not saying there are no talented candidates, but the figure looks outlandish,” he said.
The problem of how to engage young candidates during a gap year sparked debate at the meeting, but the majority opted for JAMB to maintain its special evaluation method.
The panel also discovered that parental pressure on youngsters to complete their education too soon was a significant contribution to the problem.
In an effort to reduce examination misconduct, Oloyede stated that JAMB has halted the transportation of computers between computer-based test centers.
“A computer registered in a particular center will remain there and is not transferable to another center. Some people borrow computers to get accredited and later move them around,” he said.
He denied that candidates were assigned to places they did not prefer, claiming that personal information required for registration was obtained straight from the National Identification Numbers given by applicants.
Oloyede provided an update on the 2025 UTME, stating that 974,855 candidates have been admitted out of around 1.95 million who took the exam.
He also stated that over N2.4 billion had been disbursed to universities that had continuously followed JAMB’s regulations over the previous ten years and that the meeting decided that schools providing the best candidates should be reimbursed.
On the accreditation of CBT facilities, Oloyede stated that the procedure comprised teams of university vice-chancellors, rectors, and provosts from each state.
He cautioned state governments against making deals with private promoters who may utilize centers to enable malpractice.
