JAMB: We’ve adjusted IBASS for returnees from war-torn Sudan

The Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) says its Integrated Brochure and Syllabus System (IBASS) was adjusted to accommodate the peculiarities of returnees from war-torn Sudan.

Ishaq Oloyede, in the board’s weekly bulletin, weighed in on the affairs of over 700 returnees seeking admission into tertiary institutions in Nigeria.

About 1,730 Nigerians had been evacuated from Sudan over the two-week period preceding May 9.

This was after the violent power struggle between Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, Sudan’s military leader, and Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, the commander of the paramilitary group Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

The two rival generals have been battling for control of the resource-rich North African nation.

The conflict is estimated to have killed at least 4,000 people and displaced over 4 million, according to the UN.

Speaking of the development, Oloyede reiterated JAMB’s resolve to integrate student returnees into universities of their choice in Nigeria.

He said the IBASS has been adjusted to accommodate the peculiarities of the returnee students.

The registrar, however, added that any student who has neither completed the university transfer form nor followed all the guidelines that have been made available to them will not be captured by IBASS.

JAMB’s IBASS is an online version of the brochure and syllabus that students are given when registering for the board’s Unified Tertiary Matriculation Exam (UTME).

The JAMB brochure contains all the requirements a student must meet before they will be eligible to study a course at a particular university.

The JAMB syllabus contains all the topics on a particular subject that a student must have covered before sitting for JAMB’s UTME.

To decide on the course and an institution, applicants are typically required to ascertain their eligibility status on IBASS.

“That is the platform where they are to process their applications. The returnees are ordinarily not qualified, ab initio. We did not have a category for returnees on IBASS,” Fabian Benjamin, the board’s press director, told TheCable.

“IBASS was only for local students as we did not envisage the Sudan crisis. There were no conditions for the returnee category. We had to modify IBASS to accommodate their peculiarities.”

The exam body also urged parents and their wards to take cognizance of the various advisories on procedures for applying for foreign inter-university transfers for old students.