The Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, JAMB, Professor Segun Aina has commended Veritas University for emphasizing skills acquisition amongst its students nothing that Veritas’ forward-looking approach aligns with the Board’s vision of introducing critical thinking and life skills to the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination.
Receiving a delegation from Veritas University in his office on Thursday, the Jamb Registrar said the introduction of life skills and critical Thinking to the UTME is to ensure inclusivity in the admission process into Nigerian Universities. The Delegation from Veritas University was led by the Vice Chancellor, Rev. Fr. Professor Hyacinth Ichoku with the Registrar of the University, Dr Mrs stella Okonkwo and others in attendance.
According to the Registrar, “We have tried to roll out a myriad of initiatives across different facets uh and across different parts of the value chain of the candidate experience. one of the major things we did was to set up a committee to look into the introduction of life skills and critical thinking into UTME.
“We believe that candidates, if properly assessed at O level based on subject matter need not be assessed by us again on subject matter for the purposes of placement.
“But we understand that it’s a collaborative effort and we cannot just stop. so, we are looking into the possibility of fusing life skill critical thinking into the UTME examination and we feel that this sub-component of assessment will be a very valuable tool particularly for institutions.
“We should be able to find institutions that will say our cutoff for this course is 200, but we will take 190 if you score over 80% in the critical thinking and life skill component of the examination because we feel that there are students who may not necessarily be high performers academically, but are still worthy of consideration. I think we must begin to shift to a direction where we are assessing people based on their all-round capability, not just their academic prowess on the day of assessment. That’s one major thing” he said.
The registrar who commended Professor Ichoku for being the first University Vice Chancellor to visit him since he assumed office explained that he has embarked on measures to make life less traumatic for students seeking admission into the University.
“The other major thing that we have done is to roll out a series of trauma reducing policy amendments, not policy shifts, not policy U-turns, but just manners of implementation using the benefit of technology. One of the big ones is that there are many universities who have thousands of candidates who have completed their tertiary education, were duly admitted by JAMB but because their bio data information does not match the information they have with their NIN, they cannot proceed to NYSC.
“There are cases of people who have completed their studies for four or five years and cannot do NYSC because there’s a mismatch between the details with which they registered for their JAMB and the details on their NIN and that stops them from proceeding.
“I am pleased to announce that today we will be formally launching an NIN alignment service that will allow candidates change their biodata to match their official identity and that will unlock the possibility of NYSC for thousands of people. We will come back to report how many thousand people went through the process, but we estimate there are a thousand people stuck in that um limbo.
“Beyond that, there are a myriad of other small but significant things that were previously not possible that we have now leveraged technology to make possible. For example, before if you had gone through JAMB, if you lost access to your email address or lost your telephone number, you are not able to transact with the board. We have unlocked that and candidates can now make changes and proceed to normalize and regularize their relationship with the board. We are making a push for candidates to regularize their admission. We need your cooperation in that regard” the Registrar told the Vice Chancellor.
He said his mission at JAMB was ‘to build Trust and Reduce Trauma”, adding that “one of the things we try to do is to set out to solve problems for candidates that previously do not have solutions and unlock some bottlenecks. one bottleneck that I have encountered, that I unfortunately have no solution for, is our candidates who were admitted outside the central admissions processing system. They have gone on to supposedly complete those studies, but we don’t recognize them and I have no solution for them. And there are tons of them.
“The responsibility entrusted on you is a big one. It is not just one person that you tell to go away and come back; it is a life that can be destroyed by the work that you do. So just to encourage you to continue to assist us in that regard.
Earlier in his speech, the Vice chancellor of Veritas University, Rev. Fr. Professor Hyacinth Ichoku congratulated the Registrar of JAMB on his appointment and pledged the full cooperation of Veritas University in ensuring that he achieve his mission.
“We are very happy to be here today from Veritas University. We thought that it is right and just that we should come and pay a courtesy call on the arrival of the new Registrar. I think it is important for us as your next-door neighbor to come and say welcome to the new Registrar and to see that we are extremely happy to have you and to wish you well as you begin this important national assignment” the Vice Chancellor said.
The Vice Chancellor also formally informed the Registrar of the forthcoming Pan African University Debating Championship which is being hosted by Veritas university with the endorsement of the Federal Ministry of Education, and invited the registrar to attend.
He informed the JAMB Registrar that students of Veritas University have continue to do both the university and the country proud by winning several national and international competitions both in sports, Debate and technology innovations.