Why Admission Criteria Remain Unpredictable Even With the New JAMB Model

Reactions and counter-reactions have been trailing the release of the new JAMB admission screening model, which is supposed to be a guideline for admitting students into tertiary institutions in the country.
What many do not know is that the admission process into Nigerian tertiary institutions has never been and will never be transparent or predictable as long as the current factors surrounding it remain.
What I mean is that even with the current JAMB admission model, you still cannot confidently tell if you are qualified or not qualified for admission this year.
Until the admission model becomes such that a candidate can confidently predict his or her admission before the admission list is released and it turns out so, then we still do not have a credible admission model.
What makes you even think that institutions will religiously follow this model without undue compromise? By the way, don’t mind my tone. I’m only trying to bare the situation in black and white.
JAMB has disclosed that institutions will only screen candidates sent to them by JAMB. The question is on what basis will JAMB determine the candidates to be sent to a particular institution? Don’t try to guess. The simple truth is that you don’t really know.
As long as factors like catchment area, educationally less developed States (ELDS), admission quota, and other subtle ones remain determinants of admission into Nigerian tertiary institutions, I don’t think the new JAMB admission model makes any substantive difference because at the end of the day you still won’t be able to determine or tell what factors qualified or disqualified you for admission as the case may be.
This has always been the situation in previous years, where by a candidate that scored above the required cut-off mark for a particular course is denied admission and another candidate that scored less is given admission into the same course. Do you think the new JAMB admission model will change any of that? No way! As long as the factors I mentioned earlier remain, nothing will change in that regard.
In most countries, tertiary institutions have their requirements, once you meet the requirements, your admission is as sure as death. It’s that simple. But you cannot say that about Nigeria. May be we will develop to that level with time when our institutions have developed the capacity to accommodate the teeming population of admission seekers yearly. But for now, the present reality remains.
If you are still wondering what I am driving at, let me spell it out; admission into Nigerian tertiary institutions as it stands is more like 50% effort and 50% game of luck.
So instead of breaking your head over what the new JAMB admission model means and does not mean, you should rather make sure you put in your own part of the 50% and then count on luck, influence or what my church folks will call divine favour to produce the other 50% for you.