By Ngozi Nwankwo
Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, JAMB has said the closing date for the ongoing 2023 Direct Entry (DE) registration has been extended.
In a statement shortly after JAMB management meeting, the DE registration exercise, which commenced on Monday, 20th March, 2023, and billed to end on Thursday, 20th April, 2023, has been extended by one week starting from Friday, 21st April, 2023.
JAMB said the extension was partly to give all holders of Cambridge A/Level Certificates, who were unable to register for the exercise on account of some issues associated with the verification of their certificates, another opportunity to do so, as well as accommodate others, who wish to register but were unable to do so within the stipulated time.
The Board noted that in its bid to ensure that the Cambridge A/L Certificate is on boarded in the verification process, the British Council is partnering with it and, as such, would be providing a verification portal for the seamless verification of its Cambridge Certificates as obtains with other categories of A/Level certificates.
“It is this provision of a verification portal by the Council that informs the Board’s decision to reconsider its earlier stand on non-inclusion of Cambridge certificate for DE registration.
“Consequently, all holders of Cambridge Certificates, who desire to register for the 2023 Direct Entry, can now proceed to any of the Board’s offices nearest to them to register for the exercise.
This consideration does not in any way include candidates awaiting Cambridge Certificates as ‘Awaiting Results’ would not be accepted.
It would be recalled that the Board, after series of discoveries of falsification of A/Level results, modified its DE registration platform to ensure, among others, that only certificates with verifiable processes are allowed as entry requirements for the DE exercise.
To streamline the process, the Board had also published a number of certificates that are allowed for DE registration which had, hitherto, excluded the Cambridge Certificate.
It was against this backdrop that the British Council had dispatched a high-level delegation, which met with the Management of the Board to explore the possibility of establishing a credible verification platform for its Cambridge A/L Certificates and by so doing, curb incidences of falsification of results as being experienced with many other A/L certificates approved as part of DE entry requirements.