For the first time in its history, the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has remitted N7.8 billion in a year to the coffers of the Federal Government.
The funds, which were generated from sale of 2017 UTME forms, were remitted in two tranches of N5.2 billion and N3.6 billion.
The Registrar of JAMB, Prof Is’haq Oloyede made this known in a meeting with Executives of Colleges of Education Academic Staff Union (COESU) in his office in Bwari, Abuja.
The COESU National President, Dr Nuhu Ogirima lauded the board for the ground-breaking achievement.
However, he lamented the tendency among UTME candidates to pick the Colleges of Education as third choice institutions, which means that the Colleges usually got the worst performing candidates.
“After the selection of the very best from the first choice list, the college of education system is left with no choice but the very low performing candidates.
“This does not augur very well for the teacher education system, especially at the colleges of education level.”
Responding, the JAMB Registrar said candidates were allowed to choose Colleges of Education as first choice institutions because the O’level results requirement for tertiary institutions was uniform.
A six-member committee was formed to address admission requirements for Colleges of Education.