The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has announced the cancellation of the aptitude test for 2024 Direct Entry candidates.
In a statement released on its official X account on Monday, JAMB revealed that alternative criteria would be used for Direct Entry admissions.
The statement read, “Attention 2024 DE Candidates! This is to inform you that the Board has shelved the conduct of the aptitude test for the year. Other placement criteria shall be considered for your admission while adequate preparation goes into the exercise ahead of next year.”
JAMB assured that all necessary processes had been established for the commencement of admissions into the nation’s tertiary institutions.
Additionally, JAMB announced that the 2024 edition of the annual policy meeting will take place on Thursday, July 18, in Abuja.
Minister of Education, Tahir Mamman, will chair the meeting, which will officially authorise the start of this year’s admission cycle.
A bulletin published on X highlighted, “This year’s exercise will also feature the National Tertiary Admissions’ Performance-Merit Award, NATAP-M Awards, where the overall winner will receive N500 million, and other consolation winners will share N250 million collectively.”
The policy meeting, a significant event in the academic calendar, is attended by vice-chancellors of universities, rectors of polytechnics, monotechnics, innovation enterprise institutes, provosts of colleges of education, and other key stakeholders.
During the meeting, guidelines for the 2024 admission exercise will be reviewed and approved.
The meeting will also review the performance of the 2023 admissions exercise and the 2024 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) results.
“The minimum admission scores, an aggregation of individual institutions’ submissions, will be approved at the meeting,” the bulletin stated, adding,”This is not a cut-off mark, as often misconstrued, but a minimum score that no institution should go below.”
The outcomes of the policy meeting, chaired by the Minister of Education, set the standards for admissions and represent a collective decision rather than solely that of JAMB.
“No institution is expected to commence the admission process until after the policy meeting, as the guidelines regulating the year’s admission exercise are determined at the meeting with the endorsement of the Minister of Education,” the statement emphasised.
JAMB added that institutions that fail to adhere to these collectively agreed norms will face sanctions, reinforcing the importance of the policy meeting in maintaining the integrity and orderliness of the admission process.
