JAMB Releases Modalities for Screening of Candidates for 2016 Admission

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation
Board (JAMB) has announced its
guidelines for admission process.
The announcement through its website
followed a weeklong meeting with
universities and other tertiary institutions
in the country.
According to the board, the modalities
would be based on point system.
The board, which explained how the
admission process would work for JAMB
candidates and direct-entry applicants,
also stated that varsities would collect
screening fees from candidates at the end
of admission process.

According to the board, the new method
uses a point system, which is divided into
other processes, that is easy to
understand. “Before a candidate can be
considered for screening, he/she must
have been given provisional admission by
JAMB.
The JAMB admission checker portal
is going to be opened soon for this
process, so praying is all you can do now,”
the statement on JAMB’s website said.
The second process, the board said, was
the point system where admission would
depend on the point tally of the
candidate. It said: “JAMB’s provisional
admission no longer makes much sense
this year, your points tally will decide your
faith
“The points are evenly spread out
between your O’level and JAMB results to
provide a level playing field for all. “In the
first case, any candidate who submits only
one result which contains his/her relevant
subjects already has 10 points, the exam
could be NECO, WAEC, GCE etc, but any
candidate who has two sittings only gets
two points. So, this means that aspirants
with only one result are at an advantage
but only just.”

The board explained that the next point
grades fell into the O’level grades where
each grade has it’s equivalent point; A6
marks, B4 marks, C3 marks. So, the better
the candidate’s grades, the better his/her
chances of securing admission this year.

The next point is the UTME scores where
each score range has its equivalent point
which can be summarised thus: 180 – 200
(or 20 – 23 marks); 200 – 250 (or 24 – 33
points); 251 – 300 (or 34 – 43); 300 – 400
(or 44 – 60 points).
Giving a breakdown, JAMB explained that
each categories contains five JAMB results
per point added. For instance, a candidate
with 180 – 185 gets 20 points, a candidate
with 186 – 190 gets 21 points, adding that
the point system for direct entry will be
released soon. The board stated that fees
would still be charged for screening which
has replaced the Post UTME.
“It then comes down to the fact that fees
will still be charged for screening, it
depends on the school as well,” the
statement said. It also disclosed that
catchment and ELDS will still be used.
“Merit contains 45 per cent of the total
candidates for a particular course,
catchment contains 35 per cent and ELDS
and staff lists contains the rest. “Cut off
marks will be released by schools this
year in the form of points and not marks.
If a school declares it’s cut-off mark for
Medicine as 90 points and JAMB grants a
candidate with 250 a provisional
admission but his/her total points falls
short of the 90 points, then he/she will
lose the admission. So, the provisional
admission is just a means to an end,
not the end in itself,” the statement
added.