The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) came under fire last week after it released a new set of minimum cut off marks for admission into university.
Many were outraged by this saying that JAMB is setting out to destroy education in Nigeria. The Board have come out to defend the low marks stating that it remains at the discretion of the University to admit students.
In a statement made yesterday in Abuja, JAMB’s Head of Information Dr. Fabian Benjamin said that JAMB is still dedicated to bettering education in Nigeria and that the Universities have to look at themselves as they have regularly failed to meet their admission quota and have admitted students with less than the minimum cut off mark.
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.
“All Heads of tertiary institutions were requested to submit their cut off benchmark to the board which will then be used for the admission. And these benchmarks once determined cannot be changed in the middle of admission exercise.
“Again, it is necessary to explain that the 120 mark does not in any way suggest that once you have 120 then admission is sure for you. Institutions will admit from the top to the least mark.
“We are now starting the actual monitoring of adherence to admissions guide lines, cut off marks inclusive. The cut-off marks being branded by the public as previous cut off marks were never strictly followed by most institutions.
“The board will equally ensure that it correct all anomalies existing, especially as regards the powers of institutions to make pronouncements on admissions and other related matters affecting the institutions.”
“Institutions were going behind to admit candidates with far less with others admitting candidates who never sat for JAMB. This act to say the least is very distasteful and damaging to our national data and identity.
“Unfortunately, the public has been kept away from this fact for such a long time and now that we are saying it the way it is and working to address it, the public is criticising us using non existing parameters that were only announced and not followed.
“In years past, admissions were done with worst cut off marks. We are determined and ready to correct all these with the 2017 exercise. The Board has designed a Central Admissions Processing System (CAPS) to check back door admission and other unwholesome practices associated with admission.
“We are sure that the system will bring out the good in us as it will also make provision for candidates to track their admission. This empowers them to raise queries if a candidate they have better scores and other prerequisites are admitted which CAPS will not allow anyway. This is the inclusiveness and transparency that education needs,” he concluded.