FG scraps corruption-riddled post UTME, adopts 180 cut-off mark

Finally, the Federal Government has scrapped post-Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examinations (UTME), which has bred high level corruption and incredibly low standards in the system – as a pre-condition for gaining admission into universities in the country.

The government and stakeholders in education sector also in Abuja adopted 180 as the cut-off mark for 2016 admission into universities, polytechnics and colleges of education.

These decisions were taken at the 2016 Combined Policy Meeting on Admissions to Universities, Polytechnics and other higher institutions in Nigeria chaired by minister of education, Adamu Adamu.

In his opening remark, Adamu said if there was confidence in JAMB’s conduct of UTME, there should be no need for post UTME, just as he directed that all admissions for 2016 admission must be concluded by November 30.

“If the universities have problem with what JAMB is doing, they should come forward with it and we will address it. JAMB is one of the most active parastatals in the ministry; I expect that policies that would be beneficial to Nigerian students should be discussed at this meeting.

“I believe there should be no ground to lower the quality; Nov. 30 remains the closing date for 2016 admission. No institution should exceed its quota in admission; we will start issuing penalties to defaulting institutions,’’ he said.

Adamu urged JAMB to provide permanent scratch cards for candidates per session so that they did not need to buy new cards to effect changes or corrections.

Speaking, JAMB’s registrar, Dibu Ojerinde, said screening of candidates at institutions’ level remained but it would no longer be written examinations.

He said 180 cut-off mark was the minimum benchmark as different institutions should modify according to their specifications, capacity and other variables.

Ojerinde said more candidates performed better in 2016 than in 2015, saying Imo State retained its position as the state with the highest number of candidates, while the FCT had the least number.

He said there was also a significant reduction in irregularities because of the introduction of Computer Based Test (CBT).

Harrison Edeh