The new cutoff mark for entry into
tertiary institutions announced on Tuesday by JAMB has become a topic discourse.
According to news reports, JAMB and the Vice Chancellors of all Nigerian
universities agreed that 120 should be the cut off mark for entrants into
universities. For polytechnics and other institutions, it the mark was pegged at
100 minimum.
It has been difficult for many of us understanding the
rationale behind the resolution reached by the authorities. For me, I had
thought hypothetically that it was another attempt to increase the chances of
admission for those from educationally disadvantaged areas in the country.
admission into unity schools for certain students based on their states of
origin.
Perhaps, it was because many candidates performed below
expectation in the exams. Most of those I know of score above 250 marks. But
this was an entirely computer-based exam written by many candidates who were
perhaps seeing a computer for the first time. Maybe our assumptions were wrong.
It would be nice if JAMB could be giving the public a breakdown of candidates’
performance as the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) and the National
Examinations Council (NECO) do every year to help us understand the extent of
candidates’ performances in the exams.
However, I learnt that the reason
behind resorting to such a low mark was for the sake of ‘equity’. An official
present at the meeting pointed out that JAMB lamented situations whereby
universities would publicly declare 200, for instance, as cut off mark but would
still consider the candidate of one highly placed personal who scored lower than
that for admission but would deny the son of a nobody admission even when that
one scored above the required mark. It was added that JAMB gave each university
the free will to determine whichever cut off mark it prefers while ensuring that
it does not accept anyone who scores lower than that.
The case of
universities admitting those who scored below the cut off point is not new. This
is not related to the exceptional cases of educationally disadvantaged areas or
catchment areas. I’m aware a private university in Ogun State admitted a student
who scored 150 to study Mass Communication despite publicly announcing 180 as
its cut off mark. Money doeth it all, some would say. The situation is
applicable in many public universities too for those who ‘know the way’. JAMB
had promised to check such.
No matter how low JAMB pegs its cut off
mark, universities like the University of Lagos (UNILAG) and the University of
Ibadan (UI) expectedly would not lower their standard for admissions. The two
schools have been particularly known for setting the pace. It would be recalled
that when JAMB pegged the cut off at 180 over the decades, it was UNILAG which
first insisted on 200 as its cut off mark for all courses before some of its
contemporaries followed suit years later. It was also the university which first
adopted the notion of taking in only those who make it their first choice
dubbing it the ‘university of first choice’. The admission screening procedure
used in the UI for years was what the Federal Government instructed universities
to adopt last year.
Back to the issue at hand, leaving universities to
determine their individual cut off marks not lower than the proposed 120 marks
leaves certain implications. First, it would would worsen the decay in our
education system. There are likely to be more university products who cannot
favorably compete with their counterparts elsewhere. What do we expect from
beneficiaries of mediocrity other than being mediocre? Only the exceptional ones
may make a name for themselves.
Also, the situation would put certain
universities on the watch. Future employers would care about which university
one graduated from, more than ever. Prior to this new development, we have had
cases where graduates were being discriminated against on account of the part of
the country they earned their degrees. It would just get worse since obviously
there is the likelihood that most of the universities to follow the lowered
standard in the cut off point would do so in consideration of the indigenes of
the said part.
Equally, the notion of superiority of one university over
another would be much more pronounced. You can’t compare a graduate who gained
admission on the basis of higher merit with that which did on lower merit. This
may seem petty but may just lead to some stereotype about certain class of
students from certain sets of universities.
We should not forget that a
major reason behind the ongoing strike by the Academic Staff Union of
Universities (ASUU) is the call for improved standard of education. We shouldn’t
expect things to get better in our education system if we continue to place low
premium on academic excellence. No matter the eventual amount of funding or the
extent of the provision of facilities for learning and research in our
universities, the requirements of entry for prospective students still count.
– Abdussalam Amoo is interested in education.
amoo.abdussalam@gmail.com
