The Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, has approved the establishment of an Advanced Level (A Level) certificates data bank in the country in order to curb the rising cases of fake certificates.

With this measure, another major step to put an end to the use of multiple registration and other malpractices to secure admission would be curbed.

The Registrar of Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, made this known on Tuesday in Abuja at the opening session of a three-day workshop for Public Relations’ staff of the Board.

The workshop, which was organised in collaboration with Premium Times Academy, has as its theme: ‘Media, Publicity and Public Relations in the Modern Age.’

Speaking at the workshop, Oloyede, represented by JAMB’s Director, Legal Services, Dr Abdul Wahab Oyedokun, said the Board has taken several measures to ensure total sanity in its examination processes.

According to Oloyede, the date bank will ensure all ‘A Level’ results are registered under one platform to bring about standardisation and integrity of the certificates.

“In the last one year and in the second coming of Professor Oloyede as registrar of JAMB, one of the major assignments we did here was to focus on some of the things that are happening in these JUPEB and IJMB.

“And during the last exam, we called a stakeholders’ meeting and invited managers of these organs and we asked some questions. We also collaborated with others security services to spread our net across the country to see what is happening and lo and behold more than 47 proprietors of these, and some of their lecturers and teachers, and people conniving with them in perpetrating malpractices were arrested all over the country.

“The Minister of Education has graciously approved the establishment of ‘A Level’ data bank. So for example, in a particular university, 90 per cent of those who presented their ‘A Level’ results for admission were found to be fake,” the JAMB boss said.

According to Oloyede, the date bank will ensure all ‘A Level’ results are registered under one platform to bring about standardisation and integrity of the certificates.

In a presentation, Oloyede also revealed that from 2017 to 2022, a total of N27.2 billion was remitted to the federal government’s coffers by the Board, while N9.7 billion was used for capital projects in the same period.

He gave the breakdown of the remittances as 2017 – N7.8 billion, 2018 -N5.2 billion, 2019 – N3.76 billion, 2020 – N4 billion, 2021 – N3.5 billion and 2022 – N3 billion.

Earlier, JAMB’s Head of Media and Protocol, Dr Fabian Benjamin, who commended Oloyede for his massive support for the workshop, called on the Board’s Public Relations staff to leverage on the training to do more in the discharge of their duties amid surge in citizen journalism.

“Today’s media has changed the dynamics of influence and put power in the hand of the ordinary people. PROs must now engage in the conversation through various new channels and tools. Hence, the need for this workshop which is aimed at building and maintaining the positive image of JAMB in the face of smear campaigns and misrepresentation of the activities of the Board.

“PR officers are often the first contact for individuals or organisations seeking to reach out in an informed way. They address inquiries from the media and other parties as well as track media coverage and promote industry trends.

“As the music changes, we must change dance steps or else risk dancing out of tune. Nowadays, the exclusivity enjoyed by mainstream media has come to a halt. Journalistic endeavours by non-professionals, also known as ‘citizen journalism,’ heralded the influx of use-generated contents which seem to compete with contents from the mainstream media — in terms of speed, ease, accessibility and availability of use,” he said.

The workshop, which attracted JAMB’s Public Relations staff from across the country as well as several resource persons, will end on Thursday. (THISDAY)

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