The leadership of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) on Thursday called for the decentralisation of the ongoing 2023 Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) Direct Entry (DE) registration exercise across the country.
NANS in a statement issued through the office of the Vice President, External Affairs, Comrade Afeez Babatunde Akinteye described the restriction placed on the registration of candidates to the offices of JAMB located in state capitals across the country as a mockery of the avalanche of ICT infrastructures available in the country and time wasting.
The statement titled: “NANS Calls For Decentralization Of JAMB Direct Entry Registration, Queue Needless And Time Wasting” reads in part, “We find it pertinent to extend our condolences to the family of Mahasin Idrees, a JAMB applicant, who lost her life on the 11th of April, following a ghastly motor accident while on her way back to Zaria after a Direct Entry registration exercise in Kaduna”.
“Considering the level of insecurity and dilapidated roads across Nigeria, applicants who are far away from the state capital are left with the option of embarking on an unintentional journey just to register for DE endangering their lives, the irony of this is that one is not sure of instant registration on a particular day as those offices are overwhelmed with the presence of multiple applicants, ” Akinteye said.
The Vice-President further implored the JAMB Registrar, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede to utilize ICT centres owned by public tertiary institutions and also advised the Board to engage ‘A’ level result verification experts to mount these centres for the swift running of the registration exercise to meet contemporary realities.