Is Jamb right to reduce University cut-off Mark’s to 160?.

The Joint Admissions Matriculation Board (JAMB) yesterday released the cut-off marks the 2020/2021 admissions into Nigerian tertiary institutions. 160 was pegged as the cut-off mark for universities while 120 was pegged for polytechnics. For colleges of education, 100 was pegged as cut-off.

JAMB has been the body in charge of conducting matriculation examinations for admission seekers into all tertiary institutions in Nigeria for decades. This makes it a regulatory body. In fact, JAMB is the body which offers students admissions. Universities, polytechnics, and colleges of education are not the ones who do that.

Source: Technext.ng

That said, with University cut-off mark pegged at 160, what does that say about the standard of our education in Nigeria today? In explaining how JAMB arrived at the various cut-off marks, the Spokesman of JAMB, Dr. Fabian Benjamin, told The PUNCH that institutions were the ones who submitted their cut-off marks.

Hear him: “The institutions have submitted their cut-off points already from the pool of their submissions. It was like a vote. Over 100 submitted 200 and above as cut-off point, some submitted 180 and above, while a chunk submitted 160 and above.”

Source: Pulse.ng

Until now, the lowest cut-off mark for Universities used to be 180. What has changed? Universities took pride in claiming to be citadels of excellence and academic rigour. Are we not losing all of that now?

For years, employers have bemoaned the low quality of graduates that are being churned out by our schools every year. Lowering admission criteria is definitely not unconnected to why this is happening. Nigerian graduates largely are nothing to write home about. 

Source: Nairaland Forum

We will like to say here that it’s not their fault. All of this is a consequence of the terrible education they are being taught in our schools. The government has not given education its due attention and we wonder how Nigeria can attain growth and development when our education is nothing to write home about.

This is a wake up call for the Nigerian government and other stakeholders in our educational sector. 160 as cut-off mark for universities is ridiculous. The university is supposed to be a place of scholarship. It requires high cognition on the part of the student. But with a 160 score in JAMB, how do we expect such students to excel?