By Rose Onjefu
Recently, the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) announced the cancellation of a general benchmark for admission into tertiary institutions for candidates across the country and gave the go-ahead for institutions to admit candidates based on minimum scores approved by them.
The Registrar of JAMB, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, while giving this directive to stakeholders on Tuesday, August 31, 2021, disclosed that some tertiary institutions have already embraced this idea and proposed what their benchmarks would be. He however stated that Universities would maintain a cut-off mark not below 120 while Polytechnics and Colleges of Education are to consider a minimum score of 100.
According to the JAMB registrar, the University of Maiduguri has already proposed 150 as cut-off marks for admission of candidates while Usman Dan Fodio University, Sokoto proposed 140 marks; University of Lagos, 200; Lagos State University, 190; Covenant University Ota, 190 and Bayero University, Kano, 180, amongst others.
While some stakeholders have faulted this directive by JAMB others have described the development as long overdue.
It is pertinent to note that the mandate by Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board does not address the crucial lapses in the admission process but instead casts a shadow over the country’s education sector. The directive would rather compound Nigeria’s educational system as the lack of uniformity in benchmark for admission into tertiary institutions is capable of disrupting the existing standards.
There is no gain saying that the consideration for institutions to set their cut-off marks for admission stem from the different peculiarities of each institution and is based on set standards and regional considerations amongst other political reasons. However, in a true federalism, rules must be standardized.
What JAMB has done by this new directive is playing to the tune of sections of the country which, hitherto, had difficulty making the cut-off marks prescribed by the Board.
When Institutions decide their cut off marks, they would tend to give admissions on sentiments. Such sentiments include favoritism, politics and monetary inducement without minding the credentials and qualifications presented. With varsities setting admission cut-off marks, there is great likelihood of officials offering admissions for money. This means that unqualified candidates with money would get slots while qualified candidates who can’t bribe their way in would remain unadmitted and frustrated.
Consequently, it will become easy to categorize institutions as cheap/expensive; high/low standard; superior/inferior; among others, which can affect the morale and job opportunities of graduates from varsities/colleges so labelled. What this portends for the country’s education sector is the loss of quality and value.
Rather than mandate institutions to set their cut-off marks, the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board should continue with a general benchmark to maintain standard. If the cut-off marks will be lowered, so be it! But it must be done evenly across all institutions.
If this new policy is allowed to hold sway, it would constitute a major setback to gauges expected for education in Nigeria as this may affect the quality of candidates being admitted into tertiary institutions of learning and subsequently, the quality of graduates the country churns out to compete in today’s work space.