The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB)
has said the cut-off marks for admission into tertiary
institutions were reduced to encourage as many
Nigerians as possible to school at home.
JAMB said rather than have a situation where Nigerians
enrol in “mushroom universities” and “glorified secondary
schools” in Ghana, Uganda and Gambia, the board
decided to take the heavily-criticised course of action.
The examination body said “tertiary institutions hardly fill
their available spaces”, and that the need to go abroad is
not caused by a “shortage of spaces or standards” but
“partly” due to unrealistic benchmarks.
According to JAMB, the worst admitted cut-off mark in a
Nigerian institution is “far better than allowing them to fly
out to some of the institutions they are attending”.
JAMB reiterated that the decision was collectively made
by vice chancellors of tertiary institutions, and as such,
none can reject it.
“Today, it is a known fact that millions of Nigerians are
out there schooling in mushroom institutions and they
will at the end come back with all kinds of degrees and
certificates that we cannot explain their content,” said a
statement released by Fabian Benjamin, JAMB
spokesperson.
“Our Naira is continually devalued as a result of so many
reasons, including the pressure to pay these school fees.
“It’s also a known fact that for you to study a course say
Hausa in Nigerian universities, you will need a credit in
Mathematics; however when you go outside like London,
all you will need is a credit in Hausa and English, no
Mathematics. Such and so many other poorly thoughtout
policies have pushed our frustrated candidates out of
Nigeria to developed and neighbouring African nations for
education they could not get at home.
“The question we all should be concerned about is how
to address the flight of Nigerians to glorified secondary
schools called Universities in Ghana, Uganda and even
Gambia and others. How do we ensure that whatever we
do has positive multiplier effects on other sectors of the
economy? If we deny our candidates the opportunity to
school in Nigeria, they will find their way out and in doing
that deplete our economic base.
“To provide answers to all these challenges, stakeholders
decided that institutions should be allowed to determine
their cut-off marks according to their peculiarities and
the quality and standards they want to be known for.
“Besides, events have shown that many institutions do
not comply with cut-off marks in the past; hence the
flood of requests for regularisation. Now, the new
management has resolved to stop it and ensure full
compliance with resolutions on cut off-marks.
“JAMB will equally ensure that it correct all anomalies
existing especially as regards the powers of institutions
to make pronouncements on admissions and other
related matters affecting the institutions.
“It is also very misleading to say that Vice-Chancellors
reject the cut-off mark. This may be the editors’ power of
caption, you can only reject an offer and not when the
power to determine such privilege lays squarely on your
hands.
“All Heads of tertiary institutions were requested to
submit their cut off benchmark to the Board which will
then be used for the admission. And these benchmarks
once determined cannot be changed in the middle of
admission exercise. Again, it is necessary to explain that
the 120 mark does not in any way suggest that once you
have 120 then admission is sure for you. Institutions will
admit from the top to the least mark.
“The cut-off marks being branded by the public as
previous cut-off mark were never strictly followed by
most institutions. The institutions were going behind to
admit candidates with far less with others admitting
candidates who never sat for JAMB.
“Unfortunately, the public has been kept away from this
fact for such a long time and now that we are saying it
the way it is and working to address it, the public is
criticising us using non-existing paremetres that were
only announced and not followed.”
TheCable
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