The House of Representatives has condemned the
decision of the Joint Admission Matriculation
Board (JAMB) to lower the cut-off marks for
admission into universities and polytechnics.
The House, therefore, mandated its Committee on
Tertiary Education and Services to investigate the
circumstances that led to the reduction in the cut-
off marks required for admissions of candidates
into tertiary institutions in Nigeria.
The committee was given four weeks to report
back to the House for further legislative action.
The decision of the House was subsequent to the
adoption of a motion on the need to investigate
the reduction in the cut-off marks for admissions
into tertiary institutions in Nigeria”, sponsored by
a member, Hassan Saleh.
Recall that the Registrar of JAMB, Prof. Ishaq
Oloyede, announced that a minimum of 120 marks
in the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination
(UTME) would be required for placement of
candidates into the Universities, while 100 marks
would be required for placement into Polytechnics
or Colleges of Education.
The announcement followed the August 22 policy
meeting between the Registrar of JAMB, the heads
of tertiary institutions and other stake holders held
on modalities for the conduct of admissions into
tertiary institutions for the 2017/2018 academic
session.
Leading the debate on the motion, Hon. Saleh
expressed worry, that the new policy was bound to
lower the standard and quality of education in
tertiary institutions in the country as many
candidates who performed poorly in the UMTE
examination, “could secure admissions through
nepotism, bribery and corruption while many other
candidates who perform excellently could be
denied admissions”.
“Despite the fact that more than 500,000
candidates scored above 200 marks which
represents 50 percent of the total mark, the Joint
Admissions and Matriculation Board still went
ahead to announce a 120 cut-off mark which
represents only 30 percent of the total examination
mark of 400, while 100 marks stipulated for
polytechnics and Colleges of Education represent
only 25 percent of the total mark” he added.
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But disagreeing with the sponsor of the motion,
another member, Ahmed Pategi, said the decision
taken by JAMB was in order.
Pategi argued that not are stakeholders in tertiary
education in unison with JAMB on the new policy,
he said it was unfair deny a child admission into a
higher institutions simply based on his/her UTME
score even after eleven years of basic education,
even when he made five credit pass, including
credits in English Language and Mathematics.
But Pategi was alone as others members took
turns to call for a reversal of the policy, saying
universities are supposed to be centres of
excellence for learning, research and innovation.
Hence, the need to always admit the best
candidates in order to produce graduates that can
compete favorably with their peers anywhere in the
world.
Afe Oluwookere, described the newly introduced
policy as highly detrimental to the country’s push
for economic growth and development.
This was as Henry Archibong, Rita Orji and
Abubakar Chika called for a scraping of JAMB and
the UTME, stating that the decision to lower cut-
off marks for admission into tertiary institutions
was a signal that the Board had outlived it’s
usefulness.
The lawmakers took turns to accuse JAMB of
buckling under pressure from privately owned
universities, many of whom are seeking to
increase the number of yearly admissions into
their schools.
Specifically, Chika, a former Polytechnic lecturer,
said it was highly disappointing that JAMB could
succumb to pressure form private institutions,
whom he alleged have long pushed for cut-off
marks to be lowered.
“Let me even open up. This decision was taken
because of private universities, they usually need
to admit the children of the rich, who are not ready
to work hard”, he said.