In a latest development, the Joint Admission & Matriculation Board (JAMB) has announced a reduction of cut off marks for entry into Nigerian tertiary institutions and lifted the ban on post United Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) for the 2017/2018 academic year.
According to JAMB, the new cut off mark for prospective undergraduates has now been set to 120 while admissions into polytechnics and colleges of education have been pegged at 110. In addition, innovative enterprising institutions have had their minimum set at 110. This is a far cry from the entrance requirement in the 2016/2017 academic year, which set cut off marks at 180 for undergraduate courses and 150 for polytechnics and colleges of education.
Although JAMB states that its decision was reached after a Combined Policy Meeting on Admissions into Tertiary Institutions ended on Tuesday, 22nd August 2017 there are fears that the reduction in the cut off marks will encourage the steady deterioration of the educational sector in Nigeria and send a wrong message to students. Critics have also urged the government to explore other viable alternatives such as abolishing the dichotomy between Bachelor degree holders and Higher National Diploma graduates from polytechnics. This in their view will reduce the teeming number of applications to tertiary institutions. In 2017, over 1.6 million candidates applied for degree courses while over 17,000 sat for National Diploma and the National Certificate of Education. Other fears include that tertiary institutions will be incapable of meeting up with the demand of the larger number of students that are likely to meet the new requirement, as they currently face challenges in expanding access and ensuring quality in the educational sector.
However, institutions are at liberty to raise their cut-off marks for admission above the minimum set by JAMB and the removal of the ban on post-screening UTME will mean that tertiary institutions are permitted to subject students to further rounds of examination before admission.
