JAMB Cut-off Mark And Matters Arising

The Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB), recently pegged the minimum cut-off mark for admission into the universities at 140, while polytechnics and colleges of education at 100 respectively.

JAMB and heads of tertiary institutions of learning and other stakeholders arrived at the decisions during the 2022 Policy Meeting on Admissions to Degree, Nigerian Certificate of Education (NCE) and National Diploma (ND) in Abuja.

The issue of the cut-off marks over the years, dropping in the case of universities to 140, of the total 400 marks, has elicited mixed reactions.

Mixed reactions from members of the public, who felt that the lowering of the scores may have an implication on the standard of education have continued to trail while others said it is not the sole determinant.

A senior lecturer in the University of Calabar, Dr Paul Bukie, said that reducing UTME cut-off marks would continue to lower the academic standard in the country. Bukie said in Calabar that the reduction was capable of producing more unserious and unprepared candidates seeking admission.

He lamented that “lowering the cut-off marks of UTME to 140, 120 and 100 for universities, polytechnics and colleges of education respectively, would make students not see education as competitive.”

Meanwhile, another lecturer, Mr Jerry Etta, said that the reduction was in order and was based on the low performance of candidates in the last UTME.

“If the performance by the candidates were to be high, the cut-off marks would have been high as well. More so, the low cut-off marks is an inclusive idea and to ensure an increase in school enrollment.

“The fact is, once the candidate has the required West African Examination Council or National Examination Council requirements of 5 credits, the candidate should be admitted,” he said.

But reacting, JAMB clarified that it is the responsibility of tertiary institutions to decide and determine their admission cut-off mark and not JAMB as was widely believed by candidates.

JAMB spokesman, Dr. Fabian Benjamin said that there is nothing like a uniform minimum national UTME score for tiers of tertiary institutions, neither does JAMB decide any such requirement for any institution for the purposes of admissions.

The JAMB spokesperson said that the lucid process of admission which the former President of the Academic Staff Union of University (ASUU), Prof. Nasir Fagge, expounded and was reported in the media is the exact process being followed in the conduct of admission exercise to tertiary institutions in the country.

“This process has even been improved upon with the elimination of human interference through its full automation with the introduction of the Central Admissions Processing system (CAPS).”

He also explained that, for the purpose of emphasis, JAMB conducts UTME and hands over the results to institutions for the conduct of admissions. But before the admission exercise commences, a Policy Meeting is held with all the Heads of the Institutions in attendance and chaired by the Minister of Education.

“At the meeting, the admission guidelines, which include recommendations from individual institutions and their preferred minimum admission scores are presented and deliberated upon at the meeting, and not JAMB which is only a member out of a large number of participants at the meeting.

“But prior to the meeting, more than 50 per cent of the universities must have submitted in writing their minimum scores of 200 and above to the Board for presentation and deliberation at the meeting. The same applied for the other tiers of tertiary institutions. The implication of this process is that no institution would be able to admit any candidate with any score below what they had submitted as their minimum score.

“Perhaps, it is also apt to address the series of misconceptions as to what is generally described as ‘uniform minimum national UTME score’ for admission into tertiary institutions in Nigeria entails. For some time now, many candidates and some members of the public have been under the erroneous impression that there is a minimum national UTME score set by the Board, which they also refer to as cut-off point.

“The truth is that there is nothing like a national minimum UTME score for all Universities, Polytechnics or Colleges of Education in Nigeria. It’s only individual institutions that set their minimum entry scores based on their peculiarities. JAMB has no role whatsoever in the decision of the institutions to determine how or with what criteria they want to admit. The role of JAMB is to ensure that the goalpost is not shifted in the middle of the game.

“Candidates must also know that UTME score is not the sole determinant of placement of candidates into tertiary institutions. As such, the undue attention to the so-called UTME cut-off point is a major conception of many ill-informed candidates who assumed that they have finally attained the benchmark having achieved the so-called minimum national score or cut-off point for admission.

“It is, therefore, a double jeopardy for many candidates who subscribed to the popular myth of a uniform UTME score for all Universities, Polytechnics or Colleges of Education in Nigeria. The myth incorporates the erroneous impression that it is only the UTME score that constitutes the benchmark for admission. This is far from the truth, hence, such candidates on attainment of particular grades in the UTME celebrate in advance of their imminent placement in their institutions of choice, which in reality may not come to pass at the end of the day.”