For management of Moshood Abiola Polytechnic (MAPOLY), Abeokuta, Ogun State, the period of admission of new students into the institution is the right time to make some reasonable amount of money for the school with little or no stress. To achieve this, students seeking admission into the institution must have to pay between N10, 000 and N22, 500 as “change of institution” fee. The difference in the amount, according to investigation, depends on whether or not a student chooses the school originally as his preferred polytechnic in the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) application form for the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examinations (UTME). According to our investigation, MAPOLY had in the last two years, been asking students who did not make the institution their preferred polytechnic to pay as much as N22, 500 to make it their new choice.
However, those who made it their preferred polytechnic in the JAMB form are not exempted from paying “change of institution” fee. They only pay less, N10, 000, our investigation reveals. James Ilelaboye (not real name) is one of the newly admitted students into the polytechnic studying Mass Communication. Originally, he chose the 15-year-old school as his preferred polytechnic and the University of Ilorin, UNILORIN, as well as the Federal College of Education, Osiele as his preferred university and college, respectively. Like every other typical Nigerian admission seeker who prefers the university to polytechnic and college of education, Ilelaboye desired an admission into the University of Ilorin (UNILORIN), known for its steady calendar. Unfortunately, he could not meet up with the cut off mark for Mass Communication, his preferred course so, he opted for the polytechnic.
“I scored 220 from the possible 400 marks in UTME but UNILORIN pegged its cut off point for the course at 248 and because of that, I decided to come to MAPOLY. But I was surprised to discover I needed to pay N10, 000 as “change of institution” even when the institution was my original choice in the JAMB form. When I made inquiry about this, I was simply told it was the school’s tradition to charge such fee. And since I didn’t want to stay much longer at home, having sat for UTME in two previous years with no success, I had to pay the money, though it was not convenient for me” Ilelaboye explained. Corroborating Ilelaboye, another student, a female, who also came to MAPOLY as her preferred polytechnic after failing to secure admission into the Federal University of Agriculture Abeokuta, FUNAAB, told National Mirror she also paid the N10, 000 “change of institution” fee.
“I was not happy about the development because it went contrary to JAMB policy on candidates’ choice of institutions. But when I thought of the fact that implementation of policies is always a problem in Nigeria and more so that I didn’t want to stay for another year at home doing nothing, I decided to pay the money,” the 21-year-old student, who also pleaded anonymity, noted. The story of another male student is slight different. This student wanted to study Economics at UNILORIN but because he could not meet up with the cut off mark, he came to MADPOLY being his preferred polytechnic to find out if he was on the admission list of Mass Communication Department. Interestingly he made the list but was still asked to pay the N10, 000 “change of institution” fee.
However, because he didn’t obtain credit pass in Literature in English in his Senior Secondary School Certificate Examinations, he was offered marketing instead with a condition to pay another N12, 500 as “change of course fee,” bringing the total payment to N22, 500. “Raising this money was very difficult for my parents especially when various kinds of fees and levies running to several thousands of Naira were still to be paid,” he said. More students confirmed payment of “change of institution” and “change of course” fees, which they described as fraudulent, saying the school is cashing in on the nation’s admission crisis to make “illegal money” at the expense of new students, most of whom are from poor homes. They therefore called on JAMB to stop the polytechnic from the practice and if possible to sanction it for going against JAMB policy. But the school management explained that it adopted the practice to raise some money to augment the school’s internally generated revenue.
The Head of Media and Information unit, Mr. Sulaimon Adebiyi told National Mirror that apart from the fact that government’s subvention to the school had drastically reduced in the last two years, part of the money raised through the system is being used to pay JAMB’s imposed “regularisation fee.” “Or where would JAMB also expect schools to see money to pay the regularisation fee the board collects from us yearly,” he asked rhetorically. Even at that, he noted, the impression of the polytechnic is that applicants come to the school only after they had failed to secure admission into the university, making the school to consider their applications as a second choice. Sulaimon however refuted the claim that the school collects N22, 500 from those who do not apply to the school originally, saying it is only N12, 500 and that the money is meant to process their admissions. But the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board, JAMB, condemned the action, saying no institution including MAPOLY has the right to charge any successful UTME candidate under whatever names before admitting them.
The Director of Media and Public Affairs of the organisation, Dr. Fabian Benjamin described the practice by MAPOLY as deceptive. He explained that every UTME candidate, by right, becomes automatic applicant to all the over 300 tertiary schools in the country, whether choosing them originally as their preferred institutions or not. “And that is why JAMB always instructs every applicant to fill one preferred university, one preferred polytechnic and one preferred college of education in their application form so as to broaden their chance of securing admission into any of them.
So, there is neither anything like candidates’ first, second nor third choice as far as JAMB is concerned. That is also why after releasing of results, we do send the print out to applicant respective preferred schools separately at each level. So, for MAPOLY asking candidate to pay money for this is absurd to us in JAMB,” he maintained. He explained further that every candidate has three equal options to make while looking for admission once he meets the required credentials and cut off marks for the proposed courses. “Although, there is no doubt that every school would like to consider their original applicants first at any level before those who apply later, charging money as “change of institution” fee under whatever guise is illegal. And that is why I found it difficult to believe MAPLOY could be charging such fee,” he concluded.
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