JAMB replies critics, says controversy over cut-off marks unnecessary

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), has described as unnecessary the controversies over the reduction of cut- off marks for 2017 admission exercise into tertiary institutions by stakeholders at its policy meeting. Rather than criticisms, JAMB said Nigerians should be concerned about how to address the flight of citizens in glorified secondary schools called foreign Universities in places like country Ghana, Uganda, Gambia and others.

“It is expedient to state here that the worst admitted cut-off mark in a Nigerian institution is far better than allowing them to fly out to some of the institution they are attending out there which we all know are nothing to be proud of”, JAMB said.

The organisation had repeatedly emphasised that despite the reduction of cut-off points from 180 for Universities and 165 Polytechnics, to now 120 and 100 respectively for the 2017 Unified Tertiary Matriculations Examination (UTME), institutions were not under compulsion to accept that as their benchmarks for admission.

However, despite all the explanations, critics have continued to duel on it, fuelling insinuations that they may have been paid to do a hatchet job against JAMB. But the spokesperson of JAMB, Dr. Fabian Benjamin, in a statement issued on Sunday in Jos, the Plateau State capital, said despite the criticisms, the organisation would not lose focus. He said, “The much trending controversy over the just released cut off marks for 2017 admission exercise by stakeholders at the policy meeting is quite unnecessary. Today, we are where we are because many are afraid to say the truth for fear of being condemned rather than being celebrated and set free as commanded by the Holy Books.

“This not withstanding, JAMB will not be deterred, we will continue to say the truth as it is and support policies that would bring our education system out of the woods. Today, it is a known fact that millions of Nigerians are out there schooling in mushroom institutions and they will at the end come back with all kinds of degrees and certificates that we cannot explain their content.

“Our Naira is continually devalued as a result of so many reasons, including the pressure to pay these school fees. Irrespective of this turn of events in our education history, our tertiary institutions hardly fill their available spaces otherwise known as carrying capacity. So, it is obvious that the quest to go abroad for foreign education is not as a result of shortage of spaces or standards given some of the institutions attended by these Nigerians but partly due to the fact that some of our policies and attitudes to national values and deep concern for realistic benchmarks for national development.