Government to abolish blanket cut-off marks for varsities, polytechnics next year

The Federal Government is considering abolishing blanket cut-off marks for admission into different courses in universities, polytechnics and colleges of education next year.

Government may also remove mathematics as admission requirement for those seeking to study courses such as law, English and French.

The Minister of State for Education, Professor Anthony Anwuka has already ordered the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) to consult with relevant stakeholders and come up with appropriate cut-off marks for admission for different courses in the tertiary institutions.

The plan to abolish blanket cut-off mark of 180 for admission is to stop the situation where some institutions have more candidates than they can admit while other institutions do not have enough.

To address this situation, Anwuka has directed that all admission slots not taken up be advertised so that candidates and parents could be aware, to enable them to take the slots.

At his meeting with JAMB and heads of the 21 other parastatals under his ministry in Abuja yesterday, Anwuka maintained that the current situation lacks fairness, equity and logic.

Deputy Director, Press of the ministry, Ben Bem Goong said Anwuka explained that it does not make any sense subjecting candidates who are seeking admission into universities, polytechnics and colleges of education to the same cut-off marks when the duration and contents of their courses are different.

In his remarks, JAMB Registrar, Prof. Ishaq Olanrewaju Oloyede told the minister that the notion generally being held that the carriage capacity of Nigerian universities is far below the number of candidates that qualify for admission is wrong.

Oloyede said the fact that 1.5 million candidates have sat for JAMB does not translate to 1.5 million qualifying for admission, explaining that only those with the requisite 180 cut-off marks can be considered for admission, adding that even out of those who make 180, a significant number may not have five credits required for varsity admission.