Prof. Is-haq Oloyede: JAMB Registrar

Prof.  Is-haq Oloyede, the Registrar of Joint Admissions  and Matriculation Board (JAMB), says the board may not review downward the fee for the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) in 2018.

Oloyede  told newsmen on Thursday in Ilorin  that the board had initially thought of reducing the fee  for UTME  in 2018.

The JAMB registrar,  who decried  the unwholesome activities of  some  parents during the 2017 UTME, said reduction in fee was no longer attractive.

He said many people were arrested during the last UTME for allegedly collecting money from parents who were presumed to be poor.

“It (reduction in fee) is one of the options, but what’s mitigating against it, why I’m not convinced and I don’t think the board too is convinced,   is that   are  the so-called poor people genuinely poor?

“Our findings reveal that what people spend on corruption in the society to solicit for what was not lost is alarming.

“What parents pay for seeking unholy support and what parents are prepared to pay  looking for how to cut corners show that if actually they are poor, they will not be able to secure the resources they are wasting,” he said.

On the controversy  trailing the huge amount returned  to the Federal Government coffers  by JAMB this year, Oloyede said the board  had not been  wasteful  and whatever comes in would be appropriately remitted.

He promised that the board would be strengthened to make it  self-sustaining  as obtainable across the world.

“I am not aware of any agency that is in  the nature of JAMB in the world  and is being funded by government.

“But in Nigeria, because  we are used to something that is not proper,  to get us out of what is  improper will even be strange,”  Oloyede said.

Oloyede, who  promised that the board would improve on its activities in the coming years, called on all stakeholders in the education sector to  be honest in the discharge of their responsibilities. (NAN)