ABUJA — THE Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, JAMB, has said contrary to insinuations that it fixed the Tuesday’s tertiary institutions minimum admission cut-off marks, it was rather a collective decision of stakeholders in the education sector.
The Registrar, JAMB, Prof.
Ishaq Oloyede, who insisted that stakeholders in education sector unanimously
agreed that the minimum cut-off marks for the university degree for the 2017
academic year be put at 120, lower than the previous years, which stood at 180,
allayed fears being nursed by some Nigerians that the development might further
lower Nigeria’s education standard.
He also said it would not
translate to a fall in education standard, adding that besides the board
recommending cut-off marks for universities, polytechnics and colleges of
education as well as monotechnics, individual institutions could raise their
admission benchmark higher but not above 180 and below 120 for universities.
“With this decision, universities are not to
go below the minimum 120 cut-off points adopted by the meeting for admissions,”
he said, even as he insisted that there was the need for a flexible cut-off
marks for admission processes by higher institutions in the country.
He said: “What JAMB did was a
recommendation, we only determined the minimum, and whatever the various
institutions determine as their admission cut-off mark is their decisions.
The Senate and academic boards
of universities should be allowed to determine their cut-off marks.
“We’ll react
appropriately — ASUU
Asked to comment also on the higher
institutions’ entry cut-off points, President of Academic Staff Union of
Universities, ASUU Prof. Biodun Ogunyemi, said that he was in a crucial meeting
with members of his union over the ongoing industrial action, which began last
week.
He, however, promised that he
would study the situation and react to it accordingly.
Attempts to speak with the
Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu, on the issue failed just as some of
his ministry’s officials declined, saying they lacked the capacity to speak.
It’s violence to university
education —Afe Babalola
Reacting to the JAMB cut-off
marks, Chief Afe Babalola, SAN, said: “On June 3, last year, a day after the
Federal Government announced the scrapping of the Post-UTME as part of the
qualifying procedure for admission into Nigerian universities, I cautioned in a
write-up that was published in many Nigerian newspapers that that singular step
was nothing but a calamitous mistake.
“Good enough, the Federal
Government, last week, rescinded that position in favour of the Senate of
individual universities exercising its statutory powers of determining who
qualifies to be admitted into its university.
“The euphoria that greeted the
reinstatement of the Post-UTME by protagonists of quality education was still
very thick in the air before the air was fouled again when JAMB announced the
reduction of cut off marks for students angling for admission into Nigerian
universities.
“As a stakeholder in the
education sector, I enjoyed good and quality primary school education when the
pass mark was a minimum of 50 per cent. I am, therefore, worried and curious
that this far-reaching decision could be taken without due consideration for its
implication on the quality of education on offer in Nigerian tertiary
institutions.
“My position is that there is an urgent need
for education summit to be attended by regulators and operators as well as
well-meaning stakeholders in education to diffuse this thick ice of confusion
that has engulfed our education landscape.”
