Catchment Areas for Schools in Lagos State
According to Wikipedia, a Catchment area is an area and population from which a city or individual service attracts visitors or customers. In this context, school catchment areas are the states which Universities or Polytechnics favour their indigenes in terms of admission.
Armed with this information, you should be able to make better decisions when considering the school to attend.
How are Candidates from a Catchment area Favoured?
Most schools will reduce the cut-off mark for students from their catchment areas. In a case like this, the merit cut-off mark will be higher than the catchment cut-off.
See image below for better understanding
From the picture above, candidates who are not from the catchment states must score up to the merit mark to be considered on the merit list (first list).
Although, some schools may consider candidates who didn’t meet the required score if they need more students to fill up the classes.
In the case of a state university, candidates from the host state are easily considered admission more than students from other states.
For example, a student from Lagos State who scored 200 in JAMB may be given admission into Lagos state university (LASU), while someone from Ogun state that scored 205, applying for the same course, in the same university may not be considered on the first list.
Note: Private Universities or Polytechnics do not have a catchment area. Private institutions in Nigeria need a lot of students so it doesn’t matter which state you come from.
Hope you understand the explanation?
Please note that Lagschools is a blog for institutions in Lagos State so we will only write about the schools located in Lagos State, Nigeria.
UNILAG Catchment Area
The University of Lagos is among the first five Universities in Nigeria. It was established after a recommendation by the Ashby commission which was set up by the British Colonial Government.
During this time, Nigeria was divided into three geopolitical zones; the North, East and the West. The Ashby commission recommended that schools should be built in each zones.
Following this recommendation, one school was built in the North, one in the East and three in the West.
The list of schools include;
- The University of Lagos, Akoka, Lagos (West).
- The University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Enugu (East).
- Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun (West).
- Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Kaduna (North).
- The University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Oyo (West).
Each of these Universities have their catchment areas targeted at candidates in their regions.
Hence the University of Lagos, UNILAG catchment areas include the following states;
- Lagos State.
- Ekiti State.
- Osun State.
- Ondo State.
- Oyo State.
- Ogun State.
YABATECH Catchment Area
Yaba College of Technology also known as YABATECH was founded in 1947 to become the first tertiary institution in Nigeria. YABATECH is the successor of the Yaba Higher College which was built to train Africans.
Being the first tertiary institution in Nigeria, the college provides the same opportunity to every Nigerian irrespective of their state of origin.
YABATECH catchment areas include the 36 states in Nigeria.
LASU Catchment Area
The Lagos State University, LASU, was established in 1983 by the Lagos State Government to cater for the educational needs of Lagos State indigenes.
In an effort to increase the number of Lagos State indigenes who were not in tertiary institutions prior to its existence, the State Government began plans to build what we have as the Lagos State University under the leadership of Lateef Jakande.
LASU catchment area is 70% from Lagos State and 30% from any other state.
LASUSTECH Catchment Area
LASUSTECH was founded in 1978 as Lagos State College of Science and Technology before the name was changed to Lagos State Polytechnic in 1988. In 2022, the name was renamed for a second time to Lagos State University of Science and Technology (LASUSTECH).
Just like other state institutions in the country, LASUSTECH will consider indigenes of Lagos State as a priority for admission before considering candidates from its catchment areas and non-catchment areas.
LASUSTECH catchment areas are Lagos, Ogun and Oyo states.
The school has not stated the ratio in which it grants admission but we guess Lagos state indigenes and candidates from catchment areas get 70% while candidates from non-catchment areas get 30%.
It is worthy of note that LASU and LASUSTECH conduct an indigene verification before giving out admission. The verification involves indigenes of Lagos State submitting documents to prove they are from Lagos State.
This verification, if successful enhances such candidates’ chances of getting admission.
Although, the indigeneship verification does not guarantee admission from the school.
We hope this article helped you know the catchment areas for schools in Lagos State. You may also want to see our list on ten things you should know before buying JAMB form.
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