As JAMB deregulates varsity entry requirement, experts react

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB)’s recent deregulation of the cut-off mark for admission into universities in Nigeria has continued to generate different reactions from stakeholders in the education and other sectors. By this, the board said it would allow universities to admit candidates based on their own cut off mark, implying that score […]

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB)’s recent deregulation of the cut-off mark for admission into universities in Nigeria has continued to generate different reactions from stakeholders in the education and other sectors.

By this, the board said it would allow universities to admit candidates based on their own cut off mark, implying that score below 180 points in the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) is qualified for admission.

The Registrar of JAMB, Prof. Ish-aq Oloyede, in a speech at the second technical committee meeting on 2016 admissions in Owerri, Imo State, announced that the cut off mark was going to be deregulated with introduction of flexible admission cut-off mark.

He said a large number of institutions, particularly the budding ones, have applied for a waiver to enable them admit candidates who in some instances scored below 180 marks.

“For some, this may sound unreasonable with the largely false impression that a large percentage of those who score above 180 and are qualified for admission cannot find any placement in our institutions,” he had said.

“But I think this cry needs attention, otherwise, some of these institutions whether public or privately-owned may soon begin to wobble or even close shops.”

The JAMB boss however stated that the flexible cut-off mark, which is receiving support from relevant quarters, will only be applicable to universities who have exhausted candidates with 180 and above.

 While calling on tertiary education institutions to adhere strictly to admission policy and avoid cutting corners, Prof. Oloyede decried the attitude of some institutions that disregard cut-off mark and many other policies but found a way to eventually regularise illegal admissions through a corrupt process.

Spokesperson of JAMB, Mr. Fabian Benjamin, made further explanation on the new flexible cut off mark to Daily Trust thus: “The universities should determine their cut off marks based on the kind of standard they want to establish.”

He said for some institutions who cannot go less than 200 points, the information should come from them, and others who can go less than 180, probably because they don’t have enough candidates should also point it out themselves.

Meanwhile, the minister of State for Education, Prof. Anthony Anwukah, has thrown his weight behind JAMB’s decision to abolish the uniform cut-off marks for admission.

He said the practice does not make any sense subjecting candidates who are seeking admission into different institutions to the same cut-off marks.

Anwukah, however, directed JAMB to consult widely with relevant stakeholders to come up with new and separate cut-off marks for tertiary institutions in the country, which will take effect in the next academic session.

Some stakeholders who spoke to Daily Trust on the implication of the flexible cut of mark expressed divergent views. The Dean of Faculty of Art Bayero University Kano (BUK), Professor Umar Pate, believes that the flexible cut off mark is not remarkably new, saying before the coming of JAMB, universities were doing their own admission and forming criteria for admitting their own students.

He said apart from that of JAMB, universities still have their own criteria. “A student may come with 180 and the university can say their own is 190 or more.”

“I remember years back in Maiduguri, the cut off mark for the university was 180 but Mass Communication was insisting on 210 or 215 because of the pressure and the number of students.

“For us to be able to be fair we had to shoot up the mark because those that applied for the admission were large and the available spaces were few. So one objective way of determining who comes in was to increase the departmental cut off mark not the faculty or university cut off mark,” he said.

He also said the reasons universities and parents are complaining was because there was growing suspicion over the kind of scores the candidates come with from JAMB.

“You see people scoring very high marks but when they are in the university, their performance appears to be very low, showing divergence in what they said they scored in JAMB and their actual performance in school,” Prof Pate said.

However, Salisu Ingawa, a Professor of Development Education at the University of Abuja, rejected the move to deregulate the cut off mark for university entry.

According to him, it would amount to giving the candidate false hope, given that the available institutions do not have the carrying capacity to accommodate those deemed qualified at 180 cut off mark let alone those scoring below that.

He asked: “each year what is the percentage of students that are qualified for admission into university that get admitted? Is it up to 25 per cent?”

He said it was a wrong premise because they have no reason to flag it down while calling on the JAMB to consult with primary stakeholders.

“If you look at the statistics, not one-third of the qualified students get admitted. What reason has JAMB to say it can be lowered?” he asked.

It is not true that universities are complaining that 180 was too high, the don said.

“My granddaughter scored 236. She was not given admission in BUK, not to talk of a southern university. She is within the catchment area of BUK and she did not get because of competition (even though) I am a stakeholder,” Prof Inagwa said

Daily Trust also gathered that not so many people were aware of the new policy.

The Executive Secretary of National University Commission (NUC), Prof Abubakar Rasheed, said he has only read about the introduction of the flexible admission cut-off mark in papers but have not been officially notified.

He however, said he is yet to have a meeting with the JAMB registrar and so cannot comment on the issue.

The Provost of Federal College of Education (CoE), Omoku in Rivers State, Dr. Nkasiobi Silas Oguzor, said he was not sure of the flexible cut-off mark, and that the report he got was that the cut-off mark was pegged at 160 for universities and 120 for Colleges of Education.