JAMB SHINES AT NAFOHEADS PUBLIC SERVICE WEEK
The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has made tremendous impact at the just-concluded National Forum of Heads of Federal Establishments (NAFOHEADS) 2022 Public Service Week. The Ibadan Zonal Office, which represented JAMB at the event, emerged the second runner-up in a quiz competition involving sixty Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) having correctly answered multiple questions cutting across Public Service Rules and Current Affairs.
The Oyo State Chairperson of NAFOHEADS, Mrs. Omolara Esan, who was elated with the performance of the JAMB Team, commended the Board’s excellent outing in the Quiz attributing the success to Prof. Ishaq Oloyede’s discipline, hardwork, diligence and administration.
Earlier, the Ag. Director, Ibadan Zonal Office, Mrs. Olajumoke Adeleke, in her contribution given via a lecture on
Insecurity, Peace, Conflict Resolution and Productivity, reiterated the need to establish a common ground, where
prevailing threats to the peaceful c o ex i s t e n c e o f t h e n a t i o n a r e eliminated. The Ag. Director further expressed the support of the Registrar and the commitment of the Board to the promotion of national values with the various MDAs serving as the much needed bridge for the unification. She also assured the Association of the
Board’s openness, which points to its commitment to instilling transparency for the sake of equity. According to her, this drive for equity in the face of various existential threats to the nation is important so that no effort is spared in the quest to redirect the country to the path of greatness. The NAFOHEADS week long event started with a fitness trek on Tuesday, 22nd November, 2022.
MONTHLY SEMINAR SERIES: JAMB EXPLORING DIGITAL OPTIMISATION
SOFTWARE FOR UTME
Th e J o i n t A d m i s s i o n s a n d Matriculation Board (JAMB), on Thursday, 24th November, 2022, held the Third Edition of its Monthly Seminar Series. The seminar was aimed at apprising its staff of those salient and critical operational processes and contemporary happenings in the education subsector.
The session afforded the Board the opportunity to explain its resolve to employ state-of-the art optimisation software to minimize human errors, reduce cost of generating test items, improve precision and overall accuracy in its test development process.
This was the view canvassed by the Resource Person, Dr. Akinyele Ariyo, Ag. Director, Psychometrics Department, in his paper titled: “Exploring Digital Test O p t i m i s a t i o n S o f t w a r e a s a Psychometrics Tool for UTME Item
Generation and Security”. According to him, test optimisation, as a c o n c e p t , i s a n a c t , p r o c e s s , o r methodology of making a test as fully perfect, functional, or effective as possible. ” O p t i m i s a t i o n , a l s o k n o w n a s methods used for solving quantitative problems in many disciplines, including physics, biology, engineering, economics, and business.
The subject grew from a realisation that quantitative problems in manifestly different disciplines have important mathematical elements in common. Because of this commonality, many problems can be formulated and solved by using the unified set of ideas and methods that make up the field of optimisation.”
“Optimisation problems typically have three fundamental elements. The first is a mathematical programming , is a
collection of mathematical principles and single numerical quantity or objective function, that is to be maximized or minimized. The second element is a collection of variables, which are q u a n t i t i e s w h i c h va l u e s c a n b e
manipulated in order to optimise the objective.
The third element of an optimisation problem is a set of constraints, which are restrictions on the values that the variables can take.” The Psychometrician said optimization was capable of enhancing the Board’s activities in terms of item generation and item validation through the process of digital test optimisation. A robust and optimisation process, would, among others, be expected to save a lot of cost, which the Board usually incurs on item writing and moderation. It would also minimize the item exposure rate thus enhancing test security.
Therefore, the presenter stated that the main aim of the Board, when its optimisation process is fully operational, is to engineer the test construction process to provide candidates with valid and reliable tests from a suitable range of items and tasks that will allow them to demonstrate their abilities. This, he said was owing to the fact that employing relevant optimisation software for the analysis of UTME trial-tested items will minimize human errors, improve measurement precision and overall accuracy.
The Director, in his recommendations, called for relevant training on test optimisation for at least ten members of staff of the Board, which selection may cut across Psychometrics Department, Test D e v e l o p m e n t D e p a r t m e n t , I T S Department and Management, who will later train others.
He suggested the sourcing of a robust optimisation software package from any part of the world in order to enhance the efforts of the Board in generating and validating test items. He also canvassed benchmarking with relevant organizations for up-to-date training in test optimization and software development such as the Assessment Systems Corporation (ASC), Minnesota, and CITO Institute for E d u c a t i o n a l M e a s u r e m e n t , T h e Netherlands, among others. Earlier, the Registrar, in his opening remarks delivered by the Director of Test
Development Department, Mr. David Akanbi, said the hiatus in holding of the monthly seminar series was occasioned by the series of engagements of the Board.
He said Psychometrics, ITS and the Test Development Departments are parts of an organic whole as far as test items development is concerned. He pointed out that the seminar, as a knowledge-based activity, was designed to foster knowledge acquisition by staff and urged them to pay rapt attention to the training as it would serve to improve their understanding of many of the critical
operations of the Board.
DO NOT ACCEPT ANY ADMISSION OUTSIDE CAPS –JAMB
The joint Matriculation Board (JAMB) has found it necessary to warn admission seekers to desist from accepting any admission given to them by any Institution outside the purview of the C e n t r a l A d m i s s i o n s P r o c e s s i n g System(CAPS). This note of warning is necessitated by the series of enquiries by a cross section of candidates, who were offered
admissions on the individual platforms of some Institutions as evinced in the Letters them and wished to find out the propriety of such documents. It should be reiterated that offering candidates admissions outside CAPS is illegal and any effort in that regard is capable of putting the candidates’ future in jeopardy.
As the lecturers in many public universities, who were on strike resumed work, coupled with the feverish attempts by these universities to recover lost time, admissions are being processed by those who had finished their academic sessions or about to complete theirs, candidates are advised to note that the Board would of Admission subsequently issued to A d m i s s i o n s a n d no longer condone any illegal admission.
Therefore, candidates are urged not to fall for the wiles of these Institutions, which seek to lure them into accepting admissions on their respective portals.
Candidates are, therefore, advised to print their Letters of Admission as issued by the Board before they register for their programmes of study at their chosen
Institutions. It is these Letters of Admission that should be the pivot on which their subsequent registration at
their respective institutions revolves.
OUR ADMISSION QUOTA HAS BEEN FULLY SUBSCRIBED – OOU, VC
The vice Chancellor of Olabis Onabanjo University, Ago Iwoye, Prof. Ayodeji Agboola, has stated that the institution’s admission quota of 7,000 slots has been fully subscribed for the 2021/2022 Academic
Session.
The Vice-Chancellor made the disclosure during the matriculation ceremony of the school for the 2021/2022 Academic Session, which took place on Thursday, 17th November, 2022, at the University’s
main campus. In his remarks, Prof. Agboola called on the fresh students to count themselves lucky to
have been selected for the admission offers, stating that 7,000 out of the 20,000 of them who subscribed for different academic programmes of the school were admitted.
He admonished the students to make the best out of their academic pursuits in the University while urging them to shun all social vices.
He enjoined parents and guardians to always make regular unannounced checks on their wards as well as inquire about their academic development at each visit adding that students are vulnerable, if not well monitored.
In his message to the institution, the Ogun S t a t e C o o r d i n a t o r, M r. H a ke e m AbdulHameed, congratulated the Management and students of the school for witnessing another academic year. He urged the school management of the institution not to deviate from offering all its admissions on the Central Admissions
Processing System (CAPS) platform as well as adhere strictly to all policy guidelines and advisories.
2023 UTME: OSUN STATE OFFICE PAYS COURTESY VISIT TO NIMC
In Re g i st rat i o n , t h e O s u n S tate Coordinator of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board(JAMB), Mr.
Babatunde Jacob, has paid a courtesy visit to the Osogbo Office of the National Identity Management Commission
(NIMC). The courtesy visit, which took place on Thursday, 23rd November, 2022, was aimed at fine tuning all arrangements ahead of the upcoming 2023 UTME/DE Registration so as to forestall incidences of names mismatch, biodata and other common mistakes usually made by candidates that could jeopardise their c h a n c e s o f a s u c c e s s f u l U T M E registration.
He advised that candidates needed to be educated about the importance of providing correct information for their
NIN profile adding that the profile used preparation for the 2023 UTME/DE Re for their O’Level examinations should be required for the NIN to avoid the need for future alterations.
He stressed that if prospective candidates can get their NIN registration right, registration for UTME/DE would be hitch free.
The State Coordinator commended the NIMC initiative of using its e-mail platform during the last UTME/DE registration for candidates that had issues to register their complaints. He, however, expressed the need for prompt responses to such complaints. In his response, Mr. Olumide Dotun A re m u , w h o re c e i v e d t h e S tate Coordinator on behalf of NIMC, said that the synergy between NIMC and the Board had improved tremendously since 2021 when the partnership came into existence.
He disclosed that the Commission always sensitised candidates o n t h e n e e d to p ro v i d e co r re c t information for their NIN registration but some refused to listen.
He stated that correction or alteration could only be made within the space of six months while any alteration of the date of birth is done once in a life time to avoid automatic rejection of alterations.
In addition, he said minors, who had been registered, could come for modification of data at no cost when they attained the age of sixteen years.
He promised that NIMC would, henceforth provide at least two Desk Officers, who would attend to candidates to address any challenges.
Mr. Aremu advised that a tripartite collaboration between NIMC and JAMB with the National Orientation Agency (NOA) be explored to sensitise candidates and the general public on the rudiments
of UTME and NIN registration.
EKITI STATE COORDINATOR VISITS FMBN
In a bid to effectively synergize with relevant stakeholders, the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board
(JAMB) State Coordinator in Ekiti State, Mr. Abdulhakeem Balogun, has visited the Branch Office if the Federal Mortgage Bank in Ado-Ekiti.
Highlighting the importance of his visit, the State Coordinator stressed that such
collaboration was needed considering the various benefits accruable to staff of both organisations and the general public. Mr. Balogun lauded the institution for its friendly posture over the years and enjoined the continuity of same.
Receiving the State Coordinator, the FMBN Branch Manager, Mr. Eluyinka Kayode, pledged his unalloyed support to the Board and used the opportunity to reel out facilities offered by the financial institution for interested members of staff of the Board. detailed explanation on the process of accessing mortgage facilities from the
Bank, assured that FMBN is irrevocably committed to giving Nigerian workers a new lease of life as far as owning their own houses is concerned.
The visit afforded the JAMB Team the opportunity to seek clarifications on s o m e F M B N ‘ s fa c i l i t i e s a n d th e requirements for accessing same.
PORT HARCOURT VISIT NSCDC
As part of the activities heraldingthe onset of preparations for the conduct of the 2023 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) registration exercise, the Port Harcourt Zonal Office of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), on Tuesday, 23rd November, 2022, paid a courtesy visit to the Commandant of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) in Rivers State, Commandant Michael Ogar, to discuss ways and means of sustaining the security of lives and property of the Board across the State.
The Zonal Director, Port Harcourt ZonalOffice, Barr. Edward Mojiboye, who led a delegation of senior management
members of the Board to the Command Headquarters, said the sole reason for t h e v i s i t w a s t o a c q u a i n t t h e Commandant with the new rules of engagement and security advisories from the Board.
He stressed that the new operational advisories were adopted by the Board towards ensuring hitch-free operations in 2023. In his response, the Commandant thanked the Director and his entourage for the visit, adding that it was a good ideato reconfigure the security architecture ahead of upcoming Board’s operations.
He assured the delegation that the C o m m a n d w o u l d s u s t a i n t h e collaboration between the Corps and the Board to enhance security in and around a l l B o a rd ‘ s fa c i l i t i e s a n d d u r i n g examination . On a final note, the Commandant reiterated the resolve of the Command to continue to synergise with the Board to keep its personnel and facilities safe and secure.
NO EASY WAY TO SUCCESS – MAGASHI
State Coordinator of the Joint Admissionsand Matriculation Board (JAMB), Mr. Nasiru Magashi, has charged
the fresh students of Hassan Usman Katsina Polytechnic, Katsina, to study hard and shun indolence in all its ramifications as there is no easy way to success.
The State Coordinator made the charge in his goodwill message to the institution during her matriculation ceremon for the 2021/2022 Academic Session held on 3rd November, 2022, at the institution’s multipurpose hall. Continuing, Mr. Magashi admonished the students to also shun any act capable of cutting short their future dreams while urging them to always respect constituted authority.
H a s s a n U s m a n K a t s i n a Polytechnic has seven academic Colleges and thirty Departments, in addition to its Directorate of Degree Programmes which runs eight different programmes. In his welcome address, the Rector, Dr. Ibrahim Mudi Kurfi, disclosed that the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) would soon accredit additional four National Diploma and four H i g h e r N a t i o n a l D i p l o m a programmes for the school.
According to him, “We shall soon get accreditation for the National D i p l o m a i n E nv i ro n m e nta l Health, Pharmaceutical Health, Surveying and Geo-informatics, and Mechanical Engineering Te c h n o l o g y w h i l e S c i e n c e Laboratory with Chemistry option, Science Laboratory with Microbiology option, Civil Engineering Technology and Mechanical E n g i n e e r i n g Te c h n o l o g y w i t h M a n u fa c t u r i n g o pt i o n wo u l d b e accredited for Higher National Diploma.”
Dr. Kurfi charged the students to always remember the children of whom they were. In his words, “You can only succeed in your search for knowledge when you lead a fair, righteous and responsible life – this means you have a great challenge of dedicating yourselves to purposeful r e a d i n g , l i v i n g p e a c e f u l l y a n d harmoniously in and outside the campus and principally observing the rules and regulations of the Institution.
” Dr. Ibrahim cautioned the matriculating students that the Institution would not tolerate examination malpractice, drug abuse, cultism or improper dressings.
The highlights of the event was the swearing-in of the new SUG Executives a n d d ra m a p e r fo r m a n c e o n t h e importance of polytechnic education.
JAMB DONATES READING TEXTS TO DELTA SCHOOLS
The joint A d m i s s i o n s a n d Matriculation Board (JAMB), through its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Initiative, has distributed a total of 8,541 copies of reading texts to public senior secondary schools in Delta State.
Education by the Director, Education Resource Centre, Ms. Joy A. Biyibi, were donated by the Board to encourage
reading culture among the target audience.
Handing over the reading texts to the D i r e c t o r, t h e J A M B D e l t a S t a t e Coordinator, Mrs. Linda Ajanwachuku, stressed the need for public secondary students to cultivate a healthy andSimilar donations had been made to public schools in other states in the last two months. The reading texts, which were received productive reading habit capable of developing their communication skills, aiding knowledge acquisition and research efforts, among others.
While responding, Ms. Biyibi, expressed the State’s heartfelt gratitude to the Board for its outstanding contributions to the development of the education sector across the country and assuring it ofjudicious distribution of the reading texts.
MAIDUGURI ZONAL OFFICE PAYS COURTESY CALL ON NSCDC
As part of the ongoing efforts to consolidate on the existing relationship between the Board and the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) on securityrelated matters, the Maiduguri Zonal Office of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), on Tuesday, 22nd November, 2022, paid a courtesy c a l l o n t h e B o r n o S t a t e N S C D C Commandant in Maiduguri.
The delegation, which was led by Mr. Ahmad Jungudo, the Ag. Zonal Director, was received by the State Commandant, NSCDC, Farouk Musa Boyi, alongside other top ranking officers. Mr. Jungudo, in his address, said the visit was designed to concretise the existing synergy between the Corps and the Board.
He stressed that the various successes recorded by the Board restedon the provision of adequate and robust security, adding that the Board would never toy with the security of lives andproperty on its facilities.
R e s p o n d i n g , t h e N S C D C S t a t e Commandant expressed appreciation to the delegation for the visit and promised that the Corps would never shirk its responsibility of providing adequate security cover for the Board in the course of discharging its operational mandate.
TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT REQUIRES PRACTICAL SKILLS RE-ENGINEERING – VC, BOUESTY
The vice Chancellor, BamideleOlumilua University of Education, Science and Technology, Ondo State, Prof. Victor Adeoluwa, has posited that necessary emphasis should be placed on practical skills so that the much-needed indigenous technological development would not remain a pipe dream.
The Vice-Chancellor, who made this statement while delivering a lecture at the 45th Anniversary and 18th Combined Convocation of the Federal Polytechnic, Ado-Ekiti, noted that polytechnic education is vital t o t e c h n o l o g i c a l d e v e l o p m e n t , particularly for a country like Nigeria, that c r a v e s m i d d l e – l e v e l m a n p o w e r development for sustained economic growth.
Also addressing the gathering at the ceremony, the Rector of the Polytechnic, Dr. D. Oladegbeye, said the Institution had enjoyed uninterrupted academic activities with scholarly and focused training and retraining of its workforce for efficient service delivery.
According to the Rector, “The Federal Polytechnic, Ado-Ekiti, has, in the course of over four decades of its existence, trained thousands of students I entrepreneurial and technological skills
as well as moulded morals and characters of its products for nation building.
” In his goodwill message to the school, the Re g i st ra r, J o i n t A d m i s s i o n s a n d Matriculation Board (JAMB), Prof. Is-haq Oloyede, who was represented by the Ekiti State Coordinator, Mr. Abdulhakeem Balogun, congratulated the Management and students of the Institution on the landmark achievements of the school since its inception in 1977 and urged the graduands to put all the knowledge and values they have acquired into practical use.