The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) said it uncovered at least 1,665 fake A’level results during the 2023 Direct Entry registration exercise.

The Board also said the A’level results verification regime was occasioned by the endemic corruption associated with the system and was intended to restore the integrity of this component of admission process.

The Registrar, Prof. Is-haq Oloyede, disclosed these alarming figures when he received the leadership of the National Association of Nigeria Colleges of Education Students (NANCES) in his office.

According to him, out of this figure, 397 were from Colleges of education, 453 were university diplomas, and the rest were other A’level certificates. He pointed out that it should be of grave concern if no one respects the certificate one is holding; hence, there is a need to safeguard the integrity of A’level certificates that are used to secure admission through measures that would stand the test of time.

The Registrar recalled that in the past, when a candidate applied for DE, the Board would simply ask awarding institutions to do the necessary screening and due diligence. He stated that JAMB was dumbfounded by the startling revelations from Bayero University, Kano (BUK), whereby out of the 148 Direct Entry applications to the institution, only six of the certificates forwarded for processing were genuine.

The registrar added that it was the discovery of this monumental fraud that prompted the meeting of critical stakeholders, who met to chart ways of combating the menace. Part of the measures suggested, he said, was the constitution of an A’level result verification task force as well as the creation of a common platform for the verification of A’level results and certificates. He said the platform was reliable and user-friendly, as it only takes five minutes to verify any given certificate.

Prof. Oloyede also disclosed that, to underscore the importance attached to the exercise, the board has put in place a “No verification, No admission” policy. While listing fifteen institutions that have not sufficiently complied with verification requests from the Board, he stated that the affected institutions, with more than 20 unverified candidates, would have to pre-verify candidates applying with their certificates before they could complete their DE registration process.

According to the registrar, the modification to the ongoing DE registration is that candidates could go ahead and register while the school verifies them at the backend. He, however, declared that the fifteen institutions, which were yet to fully comply, would have to pre-verify holders of their certificates before they complete their DE registration.

Earlier, the NANCES President, Comrade Eegunjobi Samuel, commended the good work the registrar was doing, particularly in terms of restoring sanity, integrity, and credibility in the nation’s examination and admission processes. He disclosed that the association was at the JAMB National Headquarters to channel complaints from their members about the seemingly intractable challenges they were having in the ongoing 2024 DE registration as well as ask for more DE registration centres.

Comrade Egunjobi said that, with the explanation offered by the registrar, the association was sufficiently equipped with the requisite information on the rationale behind the various advisories issued by JAMB. He added that they would educate their members on the rationale behind the verification of certificates, as it was being done with the best of intentions.

END.