NUT condemns JAMB’s admission policy

The Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) has castigated the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) policy on admission into tertiary institutions, calling it derogatory to teachers. NUT’s Secretary General Obong I.J Obong in a statement said the union is “strongly opposed to the current admission policy which places JAMB admission cut-off marks for students seeking […]

The Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) has castigated the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) policy on admission into tertiary institutions, calling it derogatory to teachers.
NUT’s Secretary General Obong I.J Obong in a statement said the union is “strongly opposed to the current admission policy which places JAMB admission cut-off marks for students seeking admission into universities at 180 and above while those for polytechnics and colleges of education is placed at 150 and above. 
“This policy is derogatory, highly discriminatory and calculated at demeaning and lowering the professional status of teachers with its concomitant negative effect on the attainment of quality education in the country.”
Obong described the policy as a great disservice to the education sector where the best brains and students of distinction are placed in other courses while those with lower grades are pushed into teaching.
 The union called for an immediate reversal of the policy, saying the government must henceforth ensure that only students of distinction are admitted to be trained as teachers in all educational institutions in the county.
“This is the practice in most advanced and developed countries, where it is considered that a teacher’s ability to disseminate knowledge to students is dependent on his sound intellectual capability.
 “This is how government deliberately source for people with lower educational content to become teachers only to turn around and blame them for poor delivery. If this is allowed to stand, government should take full responsibility for the resultant short comings that may be observed in our educational institutions in future from those teachers.”
It warned that the teaching profession must not be made an all comers affair, adding that the glorious old days of sound educational delivery cannot be reenacted by lowering admission standard for student teachers. The government must immediately address this abnormally in order to address the continuous decline in the quality of education.