The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has formally ended admissions into affiliated degree programmes run by colleges of education.

The decision is contained in newly released registration guidelines for Nigeria certificate in education (NCE) and agriculture courses in national diploma (ND) issued by the office of the JAMB registrar.

According to the guidelines, there will be no admission into any affiliated programme in any college of education from the 2026/2027 session under the new policy.

The board also ruled out direct admission into 100 and 200 levels in colleges of education, insisting that all fresh entrants must now come through the NCE programme.

“With effect from the 2026/2027 session, no admission into the 100 or 200 level is allowed into any college of education. All entrants are through NCE,” the policy document reads.

The admission and matriculation body, however, gave options for candidates who had already selected affiliated colleges of education for degree programmes through direct entry (DE) to mitigate the impact.

The board said the affected applicants may either apply for a change of institution at no cost or transfer to the parent university to which the degree programme is affiliated.

JAMB said candidates could also allow their second-choice institution to become their first choice for admission processing, adding that those wishing to switch institutions should complete the process before June 22.

“A candidate may choose to be moved to the parent university to which the degree programme is affiliated,” the board noted.

The board said candidates seeking 100-level admission into affiliated colleges of education through the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) have been presented with three options: change institutions, elevate their second-choice institution to first choice, or migrate to the NCE programme.

It stated that candidates who opt for the NCE route would be required to obtain an O’ level verification code from the relevant examination body and pay only N700 as a registration fee on the JAMB portal.

“The candidate may be moved to the NCE programme of the institution, on the understanding that the choice of the college of education indicates an interest in pursuing the NCE qualification,” JAMB said.

The guidelines also noted that every application for NCE admission is a deliberate choice, adding that candidates recommended for NCE admission would have any ongoing UTME or direct entry admission process suspended.

“Anyone who chooses NCE and is proposed/recommended would have any ongoing UTME/DE process suspended,” the board said.

JAMB said the details of candidates who have already applied for a change of institution through the 2026 UTME mode would be automatically migrated to their chosen first-choice college of education or agriculture-related non-technology (ND) programmes.

The board added that it had introduced a mandatory O’ level verification for all NCE applicants, pegging the verification fee at N1,500 for one sitting and N2,000 for two sittings.

In March, the federal government announced the exemption of candidates seeking admission into colleges of education from writing the UTME.

Tunji Alausa, minister of education, said candidates with four credit passes in relevant subjects are allowed to apply to the colleges of education without sitting for the UTME.
By Theophilus Adedokun
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