The Registrar, Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Prof Is-haq Oloyede, has said more than 2 million candidates are expected to register for this year Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examinations (UTME).

• Oloyede declared that the Board returned N7.8 billion to the Federal Government coffers from the proceeds of examination forms sold in 2017.
• He said the fund was sourced from the N12 billion income made during the year.
• He said JAMB had effected changes in the process and procedure for registration and conduct of examinations for candidates to curb malpractices in the processes.
• Oloyede spoke to newsmen at the weekend in Ilorin, Kwara.
• He dismissed reports that JAMB increased the examination fee, saying the agency only reduced the fee payable for the examination.
• He said the Board also significantly reduced the amount paid for examinations by foreign applicants, adding that it was aimed at encouraging a huge number of them.
• Oloyede said the agency introduced Central Admission Processing System (CAPS) in the bid to address the imbalance observed in the admission process for applicants.

What we think: We cannot but be happy that quite a large number of Nigerians are going to sit for the examination and eventually get an education.

However, the problem remains that the tertiary institutions in Nigeria cannot, even in terms of infrastructure, ably accommodate such amount of students.

We do not even want to begin a conversation on the manpower in Nigerian schools that will be able to handle them.

We should also not forget that, aside from UTME candidates, direct entry and post-graduate students will be admitted too.

Omoleye Omoruyi

Omoleye Omoruyi… an apprentice web/game developer, novelist, sensitive to happenings in the world. Meet him @Lord_rickie on Twitter/Instagram