About 80 per cent of the 1.5 candidates, who apply to write the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board JAMB, examination yearly, do not have the qualifications to sit for it.
JAMB Registrar, Professor Is-haq Oloyede, who stated this, added that 40 per cent of candidates, who pass JAMB annually, did not have the qualification to study in the university.
He spoke at the 2016 Nigeria Higher Education Summit with the theme: “Exploiting diversity, differentiation and quality assurance in revitalising the Nigerian higher education system,” in Abuja.
The event was organised by the Committee of Vice-Chancellors of Nigerian Federal Universities in collaboration with Trust Africa.
“Forty per cent of them do not have qualification. They may pass JAMB, but they do not have the O’Level requirements to go into the universities.
“By the time you mop up the whole thing, what will remain is not this big figure (1.5 million) that gives us the type of shameful statistics you parade all over Africa,” he said.
Former Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Prof. Attahiru Jega identified leadership crisis and the misplacement of priorities as some of the banes of Nigeria’s higher education.
Jega, who was the chairman of the summit and a former vice chancellor of Bayero University, Kano, identified instability, turmoil in universities and lack of focus, as other challenges facing higher education.
He also acknowledged poor funding as one of the problems facing higher education in the country.
The former INEC chair called for adequate funding of the sector to enable the universities to contribute to national growth.
