Polytechnics May Still Conduct Fresh Screening Exercise for Admission Seekers

Polytechnics May Still Conduct Fresh Screening Exercise for Admission Seekers

Fresh fact at the weekend emerged that Nigerian polytechnics and colleges of technology may still subject their prospective admission seekers to fresh another round of screening exercise after the JAMB test.

The development, according to media checks, is meant to fish out those with questionable characters who may likely hinder the academic excellence of the polytechnics and college of technology in the country.

The federal government had fortnight ago banned tertiary institutions across the country from conducting post-UTME screening.

Speaking with journalists in Ilorin, the Rector of Kwara State Polytechnic Ilorin and Chairman of Association of Rectors of Polytechnic and Colleges of Technology in Nigeria (COHEADS), Alhaji Mas'ud Elelu, said: "My school would conduct pre-admission security and certificate verification screening for those seeking admission into the polytechnic."

The screening, according to him is necessary in order to avoid admitting applicants of questionable character.

He stated that: "We need to be careful in order not to admit students who had been expelled from other institutions as well as ascertain the genuineness of applicants' certificates.

"The institution devised the new method of screening applicants based on its experience."

He said the methods was also to guide against admitting students with fake certificate and cultists expelled from other schools who might want to seek admission into the institution.

Asked if the screening would be free, Elelu declared that it would have "financial implication."

Similarly, the rector disclosed that the institution would soon begin a clamp down on operators of cybercafé on its campus, following the arrest of one of them with the school's forged audit stamp and document carrying forged signature.

He said the cybercafé operator was arrested following intelligence gathering from the institution's internal security network.

The suspect, he said, had been handed over to the Department of State Security Services (DSS) for further investigation.

Elelu warned that any staff or students found culpable in the issue would not be spared.

As parts of its anti-corruption crusade, the rector said two staff of the institution have been sent to the headquarters of Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) for training.