ABUJA-THE
Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, JAMB, has warned
telecommunication
companies against arbitrarily charging its Universal Tertiary
Matriculation
Examination on short service message, sms charges.
The
board said even as it was aware of the nation’s network challenges, telecom
companies
should not expect the candidates to pay for their infrastructural
difficulties.
The
board in a statement by its Head of Media, Dr Fabian Benjamin, Thursday,
said
its attention has been drawn to multiple SMS charges on candidates phone
numbers
attempting to register for the 2018 Unified Tertiary
Matriculation
Examination
(UTME) and Direct Entry (DE) by telecommunications companies
enlisted
to provide Profile code creation services through sending and receiving
of SMS.
“The
telecom companies are to charge only 50 Naira per SMS to use the service.
Candidates
are made to repeat these SMS commands several times either due to
poor
network or processing failure leading to rapid response(s) after the
command
is sent.
“The
Board therefore advises telecom service providers to stop the multiple
charges
and stick to the agreement reached with the Board, “it said.
It
added:” Candidates who are victims of these multiple charges are to raise a
complaint
support ticket on support.jamb.gov.ng for redress and further action by
the
Board. The Board would insist on a refund by any telecom that continue to
charge
these candidates twice.
“We
are mindful of the nation’s network challenges and does not expect the
candidates
to pay for the telecoms infrastructural difficulties,
“it further said.
Meanwhile,
the board has faulted the claim of the Colleges of Education
Academics
Staff Union, COEAS, that it placed universities over and above
Colleges
of Education in the choices for candidates seeking admissions into
tertiary
institutions in Nigeria.
According
to COEASU’s claim, the board placed more priority in terms of choice
by
making universities first (1st) choice and Colleges of Education third
(3rd)
choice
which is responsible for making colleges of education a dumping ground
and
less attractive as more brilliant candidates would have chosen universities
first.
Responding
to this, JAMB said:”The Board wishes to correct this erroneous
impression.
Our advertisement typically, including this year, request candidates
to make ANY
institution as their first choice, Colleges of Education inclusive.
It
said:”Our caption has always been ” Order of choice of Institutions : Every
candidate
is to note that the 1st choice can be a College of Education, University,
Innovation
Enterprise Institution…” This was made clear to COASU during their
visit
with copies of our adverts provided to them. It is strange to the Board for
COASU
to issue such a misleading communique.
“We
have never placed any candidate(s) nor advice candidates on the choice of
institution
as it is the candidates volition to determine which institution to pick as
their
first choice and also which
course to study. Candidates are at liberty to
choose
any institution they desire.
“The
Board restates that the 2018 application documents published in the national
dailies
are clear, self explanatory and devoid of any priority or preference as
alleged
by COEASU.
“The
Board has introduced numerous initiatives to encourage teacher enrolment
particularly
to the colleges. The exibility in the cut off
mark this year was partly
to
increase enrolment of candidates therefore increasing the need for Teachers
and
appreciation of Technical Education which is one of the major focuses of the
Oloyede led
management hence the need to correct this issue.”
By Joseph Erunke
https://www.vanguardngr.com
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