El-Rufai to JAMB: Stop giving northern candidates preferential treatment

He added that the gradual reopening of schools would commence soon.

Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State has asked the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board to make the cut-off mark scores of students from the north to be the same as their counterparts in the south.

El-Rufai, during a live appearance on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily Monday, noted that standardization of the scores would make students from the North to be competitive nationally and internationally.

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El-Rufai also said the current closure of schools in the state was the major goal of bandits and terrorists oppressing the state, and vowed that they won’t win.

He said: “The North has always been behind in education, we’ve continuously been the disadvantaged region right from independence even though we’re given preferences, JAMB scores and all that. That has not helped, in fact, it has made our people lazy.

“Against this differential JAMB and FG (Federal Government) scores, I think people should be encouraged to work hard and compete and we’re prepared to make our children in Kaduna State to be competitive, not only in the state, but globally.

“The schools are closed now because, on the advice of security agencies, they need a couple of months to undertake massive security operations. They’re doing that. We’re confident that from the next two weeks, we’ll start the gradual reopening of schools.

“We’ve moved many of our students in rural areas that we’re not sure we can protect to urban schools, thereby increasing the congestion in urban schools that we can protect.”

“The continuous closure of schools is exactly what bandits and Boko Haram want and we’re not going to let them win but we must put the safety of our children and teachers first,” the governor said.

He added that the gradual reopening of schools would commence soon.