JAMB Registrar Responds To Criticisms Trailing Admission Cut-Off Marks

The Registrar, Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, JAMB, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede has responded to concerns by Nigerians over the new admission cut off marks fixed by the body.

Recall that JAMB had placed the minimum cut off marks for admissions into universities at 120, polytechnics and colleges of education pegged at 100, while that of innovative enterprising institutes was pegged at 110.

The development has garnered mixed reactions from Nigerians who claim that the reduction in the cut off marks would further lower Nigeria’s education standard.

Oloyede, in a statement yesterday, explained that the new cut off marks was not solely the decision of JAMB but a collective decision of stakeholders in the education sector.

He 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.

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.

“What JAMB did was a recommendation, we only determined the minimum, 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.”

Meanwhile, Chief Afe Babalola, SAN, in his reaction rejected the 2017 cut off mark. He 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“Good enough, the Federal Government, last week, rescinded that position in favour of the Senate of individual universities exercising its statutory powers of determining who qualifies to be admitted into its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 yesterday (Tuesday), 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.”