Education
SOME stakeholders in the education sector say cut-off marks set by JAMB for candidates to gain admission into the tertiary institutions may not necessarily imply a dwindling standard of education.
Others disagree, attributing the continuous lowering of cut-off marks by JAMB to the falling standard of education.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that recently JAMB announced the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) minimum cut-off marks for universities at 140, for Polytechnics and Colleges of Education is 100.
This continuous lowering of the cut-off marks has elicited various reactions from stakeholders.
Some of the stakeholders told NAN on Wednesday in Abuja that having a cut-off mark however was creating opportunities for all students to be allowed a chance for admissions into higher institutions.
Dr Steve Olumaniyi of the National Mathematical Centre (NMC) argued that UTME scores and the set minimum cut-off marks had nothing to do with the standard of education since all the tertiary institutions have their own standard for admission.
Olumaniyi said that the major problem of education system of the country was administrative inefficiency at all levels.
“We should blame the governments and not looking at JAMB minimum cut-off marks, we should look at the kind of students the schools are turning out yearly with ASUU strike every now and then,” he said.
Dr Olatunji Jekayinfa, a Research Fellow at National Mathematical Centre, Abuja said that in spite of the minimum UTME cut-off mark set by JAMB, individual institutions have the liberty to set their cut-off marks.
“Some renowned institutions set their cut-off marks above the minimum set. For example, the minimum cut-off mark of some universities has never gone down below 180.
“Also, some polytechnics and colleges of education maintain a higher cut-off marks than the minimum set,” Jekayinfa said.
He, however, said that a score of 140 out 400 or 100 out of 400 is low and poor, saying that there was no strong point or reasons given that could make a score of 140 out of 400 (35 per cent) or 100 out of 400 (25 per cent ) pass marks.
He, therefore, called for all efforts to be put in place by all education stakeholders to ensure quality and standard in the tertiary education.
However, Prof. Stephen Onah, former chief executive National Mathematical Centre said that whatever must have informed the approving body to accept lower cut-off marks notwithstanding.
“One fact that cannot be denied is that the examination body has lowered the quality of candidates that it is offering to the higher institutions for admission.”
According to him, this is because many, if not most institutions use these cut-off marks to give admissions. This will ultimately affect the education system adversely in terms of poor quality output.
“At the end, the quality of national manpower development is worse off for it.
“I feel that it is better to maintain high standard by the examination body and allow higher institutions that are interested to use their various remedial ways to admit weak candidates,” Onah said.
Also, the Save Public Education Campaign, an NGO attributed the continued lowering of cut-off marks by JAMB to the falling standard of education.
The organisation, through its Founder, Mrs Vivian Bello, expressed worry over the cut-off marks lowering, saying it would have adverse effect on global university ranking.
“This lowering of cut-off marks is a tacit approval of fall in standards of education as being witnessed in the country.
“We are particularly worried over this considering the implications this new move portends for students and the quality and capacity that are being moulded into them.
“In a world that is fast becoming a global village, where standards will vastly cut across seeming to tacitly give in to low standards for the country’s tertiary education products may place them at some inadvertent disadvantages in global competitiveness.
“We also note that indicators such as these come into play in international ranking of universities globally and may account in part for why Nigerian universities have consistently failed to feature in the top ranks in such global rankings,” she said.
Bello, therefore, called for putting in place all the necessary infrastructures and resources to shore up appropriately the capacities of students to have them stand the test of time and acquire knowledge.
Mr Dammy Owot, the Secretary, Workers and Youths Solidarity Network (WYSN) said that the lowering of cut-off marks indicated that education was no longer a priority of the country.
Owot called on the government to make education attractive by providing mass employment for graduates and as well making the environment thrive for students to practice their profession.
He said that doing this would make students eager to learn and the decision to lower the cut-off marks would no longer be an issue.
“The continuous lowering of UTME cut-off marks can only indicate one thing – compromised quality of education in Nigeria.
“Students are no longer motivated to learn because past antecedents have shown clearly that education is no longer the key.
“The present day Nigeria isn’t attractive to students and hinder their motivation to learn,’’ he said.
Owot said that the implication of the lowering of the cut-off marks would lead to massive dropout of students and the production of half-baked graduates.
“The solution to this is to make education attractive, provide mass employment for graduates, celebrate students who complete every education level and give out scholarships to brilliant students.
“The government should also pay graduates a living wage, and give values to students. This way, people will be motivated to learn and cut-off marks won’t be an issue.
“The implication, however, is massive dropouts and withdrawal at 100 levels of tertiary institutions, half-baked graduates and reduced quality of education in Nigeria,” he said.
The Chancellor, Gregory University, Uturu, Abia State, Prof. Gregory Ibe, also called on the government and relevant education agencies to pay attention to basic education.
Ibe said that the government should do away from lowering cut-off marks and also need to ensure that teachers were adequately taken care of to avert the problems of strikes by university lecturers.
“We need to consider best practices in our tertiary institutions to be able to have quality teachers and quality students.’’
Reacting, JAMB said there was no uniform minimum UTME score for any of the tiers of tertiary institutions and neither did it decide any such requirement for tany institution.
The Board Head, Public Affairs and Protocol, Dr Fabian Benjamin said the board did not and had never determined any uniform national UTME scores otherwise known as cut-off mark by the general public for any tertiary institution.(NAN)
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Tags: Dammy Owot JAMB Olatunji Jekayinfa Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME)
