What Are The Documents Required For First Year Clearance?

What Are The Documents Required For First Year Clearance?

Once you are admitted into any tertiary institution, the first question would be – what are the documents required for first year clearance? As a first-year student, your first-year clearance exercise is very important. It is just basically you registering as a student of that institution. There have been several cases where students went through school and at final year, they discovered that their names were not in their school’s database. This means that all the fees they paid, all the classes they attended, all the assignments, tests and exams were all a waste; tragic right? The truth is that if you check well, such people did not do their first-year clearance properly. We at Schoolmetro do not want this to be the case for you at all – which is why we put this article together.

The clearance exercise is a very strenuous process for students. Imagine students from every faculty in a hall all waiting to be cleared by a limited number of staff. The environment is usually not conducive and most times, students spend days, even weeks or months for their clearance exercise. This is very common, especially in federal universities.

Thanks to technology, first-year clearance has become an easier process as most of the documents are scanned, uploaded and submitted online to the school’s official website. Nowadays, students will only have to appear in person once or twice to collect their clearance certificate. Don’t you just love technology?

Sadly, not all tertiary institutions have adopted this technology in their first-year clearance exercise. However, the documents required for first year clearance by Universities, Polytechnics and even college of educations remain very similar. The big question still remains, what are the documents required for first year clearance? Let’s take you through the documents and items you would need:

Basic Credentials

O Level Result (WAEC/NECO/GCE or any Equivalent Certificate)

During your first year clearance, you’re required to provide your O level as your first sitting result. Some tertiary institutions state the specific form of post-secondary school examination that is required but it does not go beyond these three. Don’t forget to confirm the O level requirements of your potential institution. If you have more than one valid O level result, use the best in terms of your general performance in relevant subjects, though, WAEC is most referred. Some institutions, however, allow the combination of two results if you failed a compulsory subject in one of the results; be sure to confirm whether it’s allowed to combine two results for your course of choice.

JAMB result

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) result is another compulsory credential during first year clearance. You are required to print out your JAMB result from the JAMB Official Website using your email address or JAMB Registration Number and password used to register on the platform.

For Jambites: A good Jamb result gives you an edge during the admission process; check out our article on how to make good Jamb result. You can also check out 2020 Jamb subject combination for all courses so you can start preparing on time.

JAMB admission letter

Another important credential that is required during first year clearance is the Jamb admission letter. This is different from the admission letter offered by the tertiary institution. The Jamb admission letter is sent by Jamb as an offer to students based on their performance, institution and course of choice.

Post-UTME result

The entrance exam hosted by different institutions after the UTME exam is basically what determines whether or not the candidate will be admitted. This Post-UTME result is another important credential you must carry along during your first year clearance.

Admission letter from the institution

In this age and time, every tertiary institution in Nigeria – or at least, the majority of them have a website where you can register and have a profile. An acceptance letter is going to be sent by the school to you via this e-platform which you would download and take along with you to the clearance exercise.

Acceptance fee payment printout

To show that you have accepted the admission from the institution, you would have to pay a specified amount of money via your university’s e-platform. You are to print the acceptance fee payment slip and take it along with you to the clearance exercise.

Birth certificate or age declaration document

You are required to provide either your birth certificate or an affidavit that declares your age. You can obtain an age declaration affidavit by going to the nearest court. The court will issue you a stamped and signed evidence of age.

Proof of LGA of origin

Also, it is either you provide an original document from our LGA council to confirm you are from that local government or you swear an affidavit of local government of origin in the nearest court. The affidavit must be signed by the declarant (student) as well as the court and must be stamped by the court.

Acceptance letter

This is a letter written by the student addressed to the management of the tertiary institution, letting them know that he/she have accepted the admission. It must be signed by the student. This document is compulsory and must be part of the credentials you carry along during your first year clearance.

Guarantor/referee letter

This is a letter that is written by or on behalf of your sponsor which could be a parent, sibling or relative. It is typed and signed by your sponsor and addressed to the management of the tertiary institution. You must carry it along during your first year clearance.

Affidavit of good conduct

Some tertiary institutions require admitted candidates to swear an oath of good conduct. It is an oath written by or on behalf of the student stating that he/she will abide by the school regulations and will accept any disciplinary action if he/she breaks any school rule. This is a document signed and stamped by the court.

Affidavit of non-membership of a secret cult

This is a document sworn by the student making it clear that he/she is not a member of any secret cult within and outside the university. It is written by or on behalf of the student and signed by the student. It is stamped and signed by the court. This document is required by some institutions as part of the first year clearance for all successful applicants.

Necessary Stationery

Notebook/Biro

Well, this is not exactly something you would submit for your clearance but during offline clearance exercises, you would write a lot and fill a lot of forms. You should have a biro with you at all times. More so, you might need to write down a few things as well. So just to be on the safe side, go with a portable notepad or notebook.

Office file and plastic file

Files are needed to help sort your documents. You would submit photocopies of your clearance documents in various offices in the school so files will come in handy. Documents are usually submitted in paper files. Plastic files, on the other hand, will help protect your documents from rain, tear or squeeze during the clearance process.

Staplers and/or paper clips

Staplers and paper clips both do the same thing; attach documents, though paper clips are considered more temporary than staplers. These are not mandatory; they are just things that will make things easier for you. You might as well visit the shopping complex to get your documents stapled.

Other Necessities

Passport photographs

Your passport photograph is going to be required in every stage of your clearance and beyond. Your institution wants to see your face attached to your documents so get as many passports as possible. Most universities use red background passports but just as a general advice; always have passport photographs in your purse or wallet. It would come in handy a lot.

Cash

Also, in offline clearance exercises, they might require you to print and photocopy a lot of things so also have cash with you. You would most likely be exhausted during the process and you may need to get food to eat. Always have money with you for just miscellaneous.

JAMB scratch card

It is compulsory that you provide a valid Jamb scratch card in order to enable your clearance officer to confirm the validity of your Jamb result. Do not scratch the card, just buy it and carry it along with you.

WAEC/NECO/GCE scratch card

You are also required to provide scratch card of the O level result you intend using. If you are combining two results, you must buy scratch cards for the two results that you’re combining. Also, do not scratch the cards.

Finally!

Just as a bit of general advice, ensure that your details in each document are consistent. Your date of birth should be the same, your signature should be the same and your names should be consistent. Do not switch your first name as your second name in another document; it does not work that way. It would be assumed that the two documents are for two different people. Having inconsistencies would be a problem during your clearance exercise and delay is inevitable. If this happens, you would be running around trying to get your clearance sorted out while your mates are in their lecture theatres learning. So, ensure you get this right. Another advice? Do not forge documents and go early.

If your school’s clearance is online, all you would have to do is upload all the documents mentioned above on your profile via your university’s e-platform. Easy as ABC! Note that you should have at least 5 photocopies of all documents and duplicates of the other items listed above. Clearance exercise is hectic but you can make it easier for yourself by having all the necessary things.

Thank you for reading!

I hope you found this article interesting. You can always check HERE for other related articles.