What do you think of JAMB’s new cut-off mark?
The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) recently set 120 as its cut-off mark for admission into universities. This has generated a lot of controversy. Daily Trust spoke sought the opinion of Nigerians. Melvin Monsi, 37, Petrochemical Engineer, Rivers State I think it is a good idea because many students have been writing JAMB and […]
The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) recently set 120 as its cut-off mark for admission into universities. This has generated a lot of controversy. Daily Trust spoke sought the opinion of Nigerians.
Melvin Monsi, 37, Petrochemical Engineer, Rivers State
I think it is a good idea because many students have been writing JAMB and failing. Now that the cut-off mark is reduced I believe it is an opprtunity for those who have not gotten into the university to get into the system.
Femi Williams, 35, Computer Engineer, Oyo State
I have listened to so many debates and arguments about this, even recently on Ray Power FM. As an educated person, I think it belittles our educational standard. It is unacceptable, so whoever is responsible, whether the ministry or JAMB, they all need to have a rethink. Another way to look at it is that this might breed corruption.
Chadi Muhammad, Public Servant, Bauchi
What is the rationale behind such policy? These types of decisions should at least be taken after consultations and all stakeholders must be involved. The cries that followed the reduction of cut-off marks by JAMB clearly shows that the universities, polytechnics and other stakeholders have been left out of the whole thing. Nigerian education sector has always been in one crisis or another and it seems that there is no end in sight. How can a decision like this, which will affect the lives of everybody, be taken unilaterally? This decision will surely open doors to many short and long term consequences, which will not be good in the end. We only hope for the best because universities and other institutions cannot cope with the influx of students seeking admission. It will also aggravate the already existing abuse in the system between students and lecturers.
Kajopelaye-Ola Abodunde Taiwo, 27, Creative Officer, Abuja
Honestly speaking, I think it is completely and absolutely not appropriate. It is just weakening the educational standard. The current educational standard does not even meet up with the industrial standard. Many graduates are churned out who cannot even fit into the industry and now the cut-off mark is brought down. This actually makes students lazier. The fact that it was 180 was reasonable, but bringing it down to 120 is sad. It doesn’t really encourage people. The120 mark seems like something you can get without studying. So I don’t think it is ideal.
Ahmed Aliyu, 32, Trader, Abuja
The cut-off mark is too low. I see it as an opportunity for students who are lazy to get into the university. If you reduce the JAMB cut-off mark, do you expect the educational standard of the country to improve? It is not right.
Esther Arin Madaki, Youth Corps Member, Bauchi
Reducing cut-off marks for admission into universities and other higher institutions has both advantages and disadvantages. The main advantage is that it will give opportunity to people who hitherto cannot get the maximum points to enter universities to get admitted. On the other hand, many people who are not fit may flood the universities. Polytechnics and Colleges of Education will also be placed at a disadvantaged position because many will not apply for them since the cut-off marks for admission into universities has been lowered, universities and polytechnics should also be allowed to put in some mechanisms to screen the students and not just to allow incompetent individuals into their institutions because of the points they got in their JAMB examination.
Grace Ene Joseph, Online Journalist, Bauch
JAMB knows the reason for the reduction of cut-off marks for admission into Universities, Polytechnics and Colleges of Education. Although merit is always emphasised in having the best out of the millions of people seeking admission, the Computer Based Test introduced by JAMB recently had brought in an innovation to checkmate cheating, which has been rampant in the past. However, the reduction should be reconsidered for students applying for professional courses like Medicine, Engineering, Pharmacy, Law and others because competence and excellence matters a lot when it comes to selection of students for these courses. So, if JAMB will reduce cut-off marks, it must not be as low for these particular courses.
Saleh Umar Darazo, Public Servant, Bauchi
I don’t support this drastic reduction of cut-off marks by JAMB. They have slashed the points too low for competence and merit. I have a son who wrote JAMB this year and got 140 points and was not admitted because his points are lower than the requirements. I was not satisfied when he got 140 at that time but now that they have slashed the points, they have given room for all sorts of people to flood our higher institutions. We believe that the standard of education is going low due to many factors, so with this, we will witness another downward trend in the performance of students. I had expected JAMB to raise the cut-off points for admission into courses like Medicine, Pharmacy, Engineering and Law courses.