The Federal Government yesterday ordered an end to the conduct of post Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examinations (post-UTME) exercise in Nigeria’s tertiary institutions.
Government also pegged the 2016 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) national cut-off mark for admissions into universities, polytechnics, colleges of education and other diploma-awarding institutions at 180.
The decision was taken after the 2016 combined Policy Committee meeting on admissions to Degree-awarding institutions, National Diploma, Nigeria Certificate in Education and National Innovation Diploma-awarding institutions yesterday in Abuja.
Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu, who disclosed this at the meeting, maintained that the Federal Government has confidence in the examinations conducted by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB.
Post-UTME exams for applicants was introduced by many universities and polytechnics as further pre-requisites for admission by, irrespective of whether they passed the JAMB examination.
According to Adamu, “As far as I am concerned the nation has confidence in what JAMB is doing, the universities should not be holding another examinations, and if the they have any complaint against JAMB, let them bring it and then can we address it. JAMB is qualified enough to conduct tests and if they have conducted test then there should be no need to conduct another test for students to gain admission.”
Adamu also added that the tertiary institutions in the country must each observe “the admission criteria based on merit, catchment area and educationally less-developed states in accordance with the
He therefore urged all the tertiary institutions in the country to ensure that all the admission spaces in their schools are adequately utilised.
Speaking in an interview with newsmen shortly after the meeting, the Registrar and Chief Executive of JAMB, Prof. Dibu Ojerinde, disclosed that no institution would be allowed go below the 180 cut-off set by the board.
His words: “180 is given, no institution will go below 180 this year, And some universities can go above it, I know University of Ife will not go below 200 and University of Lagos will not go below 200 and also UI. All these ones stand but 180 as bench mark for others.
“This year we have more than enough candidates, we have over 1.5 million candidates so we will get enough candidates to take in all the schools if they are serious. Re-distribution is already ongoing, because it is embedded in the registration procedure.”
Ojerinde added that the minister would give more details on the crapping of the conduct of post-UTME tertiary institution in the country before the end of next week.
He said the major challenge face in the conduct of the exams was lateness of students to their centres.Ojerinde said re-distribution of students into other higher institutions was embedded in the registration procedure of the 2016 UTME exams, which according to him will make it easier than the previous years.
