Kuni Tyessi in Abuja
The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has denied any plan to clamp down on Baptist Girls Academy, Lagos, in its preparation for the conduct of the 2021 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), contrary to reports making the round.
The board stated that the incident that happened during an inspection of the registration exercise of the 2021 UTME in the Southwest was to clarify from students on the issue of mismatch of candidates’ data.
The JAMB spokesperson, Dr. Fabian Benjamin, in a statement quoted the JAMB registrar as explaining that the issue of mismatched data occurred as a result of group registration by the authorities of some elite schools who collect huge amount of money from parents in the name of helping them to facilitate their wards’ registration.
He stated that the Board was against such practice as its examination is not a group-based exercise like WAEC or NECO. As such, he said candidates are expected to register individually.
According to the statement, on the collection of higher fees above the prescribed fee, the registrar said he was not aware of any large-scale extortion going on anywhere other than the exception of some elite secondary schools, “who are in the habit of illegitimately collecting money in the name of the Board.
“During an interview with journalists, a group of students was spotted, which drew the attention of the registrar to them insinuating that they could be among those involved in group registration.
“Consequently, the registrar invited them. He asked them how much they had paid for the UTME registration and the name of their school.
“The students replied that they were from Baptist Girls Academy and that they had paid N8, 000 to their school for the 2021 UTME registration,” the statement read in part.
It added: “He subsequently requested to meet their teacher who was not there at that moment. The Registrar continued with the interview and the students again drew his attention to the arrival of their teacher who maintained that the school had only collected the approved fee of N4,700.
“However, another student, who was present there, contradicted him and maintained that he and his colleagues had paid N8,000 and not N4,700 as claimed by the teacher. The Registrar then asked if any student had paid higher and another one who also claimed to come from Baptist Girls Academy said she also paid N8,000 and not N4700. The registrar then asked the teacher to reconcile what he had asserted with what the students are disclosing.”
