FG orders separate cut-off marks for varsities, others
The Federal Government has directed the
Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board to consult with the relevant
stakeholders so as to come up with new and separate cut-off marks for
admission into universities, polytechnics and colleges of education from
next year.
A statement issued on Monday by the
Deputy Director (Press and Public Relations), in the Ministry of
Education, Ben Goong, said the Minister of State for Education, Prof.
Anthony Anwukah, gave the directive after a one-day meeting with chief
executive officers in the ministry.
According to him, it is wrong to subject
candidates seeking admission to different higher institutions to the
same cut-off marks when the duration and contents of their courses are
different.
The minister also approved the decision by JAMB to reduce its cut-off marks for admission into tertiary institutions.
Anwukah maintained that the current
policy of adopting 180 as the uniform cut-off point for admission lacked
fairness, equity and logic.
Goong said, “The minister is in full
support of the decision of the board to introduce discriminatory cut-off
marks for admissions into the institutions.”
Anwukah also directed JAMB to publish,
in full, the list of unutilised admission slots into all universities,
polytechnics and colleges of education on a course-by-course basis at
the end of the first leg of the admission process to enable students and
parents to take full advantage of existing admission vacancies in
institutions where such exist.
The minister said this would prevent a
situation where some institutions had more than the number of students
they needed, while others could hardly fill their quotas.
At the meeting, JAMB Registrar/Chief
Executive, Prof. Is-haq Oloyede, told the minister that the belief that
the carrying capacity of Nigerian universities was far below the number
of candidates that qualified for admission was wrong.
According to him, only those with 180
cut-off mark can be considered for admission, adding that out of those
who met the criterion, a significant number might not have the five
credits required.
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