Minister warns JAMB over illegal admissions as JAMB declares cutoff marks

The Minister of Education, Professor Ruqayyatu Ahmed Rufai, while speaking at a meeting in Abuja warned the Joint Admission and Matriculations Board (JAMB) not to admit candidates without the required qualification and certificates.

She gave this warning on Monday at the 2012 Combined Policy Meeting on Admission to Degree-Awarding institutions, National Diploma (ND), Nigeria Certificate in Education (NCE) and National Innovation Diploma (NID) awarding institutions.

Prof. Rufa’i also announced the cut-off mark for admission into colleges of education and polytechnics as 160, and that for admission into all federal universities as 180 for the 2012/2013 academic session.

The Minister said admission should not be given to candidates who applied for the National Certificate of Education (NCE), National Diploma (ND) or the Interim Joint Matriculation Board Examination (IJMBE) without the prerequisite Advance Level (A/L) certificate.

She said it is illegal for some institutions, especially the universities to equate their foundation programmes with the ‘A’ level certificate.

“The programme is for a period of one academic year, and thereafter, the students are admitted into 200 levels through direct entry, this is illegal.“All `A’ Level equivalents should pass through the National Council on Education for approval. We have got to do the right thing.

“The Tertiary Education Department is hereby directed to collect the names of erring institutions for appropriate disciplinary action.”

The Registrar and Chief Executive of JAMB, Adedibu Ojerinda, insisted that all institutions must adhere strictly to the entry requirements as documented in the board’s brochure and comply with the admission schedules.

“Institutions should ensure compliance with approved admission guidelines, bearing in mind such criteria as catchment, educationally-less developed states, quota, carrying-capacity and national cut-off marks.’’

The registrar said that available statistics indicated a disturbing trend regarding attendance and compliance at the two Technical Committee meetings in 2011 held in Owerri and llorin.

He said only few institutions used JAMB list in 2011 admissions.

“The board frowns at this and hopes that the 2012 admission will be an improvement upon last year’s,” he said

He added that all foreign-based and physically-challenged candidates, who sat for the 2012 UTME and made the national minimum cut-off mark should be given due consideration.

The Chairman of the Committee of Provosts in Nigeria, Isa Abubakar, who spoke on behalf of the federal universities, said that the agreed cut off point for admission into universities is 180 while the Chairman, Council of Heads of Polytechnics and Colleges of Technology in Nigeria (COHEADS), Mohammed Nabade said that the cut-off mark for admission into colleges and polytechnics is 160.

22 COMMENTS

  1. Are you a prospective UNN student? Get all the information & assistance you need concerning this year’s post ume..you can also obtain pume past question from 2005 til date.call 08068456927.

  2. Jamb first released the qualified marks for Post UME sitting (varies), and now declears again that the cut-off mark for Fed. University is ‘180’. But the Honourable Minister of Edu has finalised that the students that scored atleast 180marks should be given a consideration in university admission. But my qst. Is this;
    8-) would the University conduct their P.UME exam?
    :* If yes, they should stop the rumour that they w’ll no longer be P.UME 4rm Benjamin Oluiza.

  3. Bewear! Bewear! Bewear!!
    It’s obvious and quit furtunate that the chairman of the commitee and provost’ has on behalf of the Fed Universities stated that; The agreed cut-off point for all Universities admission is 180 and above, while that of Colleges and Polies is 160.
    God bless them; Isa Abubaka & Mohammed N.
    So to u all candidates shine ur eyes dat u don’t buy any form 4 P.UME (reaching u 4rm Benjamin Oluiza= Facebook Add)

  4. Pls let someone help me remind JAMB, UTME, MINISTER OF EDUCATION and all Nigerian university authorities that 160, 180, 200 points cut off are 40, 45, 50 % of 400 total possible score respectively. In view millions sit for this JAMB annually while not raise the cut off to 220 ie 55%. Alternatively 200 plus above 50 in 3 JAMB subjects or 240 plus above 60 in 2 JAMB subjects and above 40 in English will make more sense. These under 200 JAMB COCONUT heads in our higher institutions do no body any good. Since majority of the WASC youths are below 18yrs these days let those scoring below 200 do 2yrs HSc/A levels to make up. In my time in the 70s I had to do 2 yrs Hsc despite my grade one distinction WASC because I needed physics to read engineering which I did not offer in my village sec school. So with my HSc B,B, D,D and govt scholarship it was fun getting admission/reading engineering/graduating 2.1 in the university. A colleague similarly came in to read medicine with HSc after 7yrs unsuccessful prelim entrance attempts. He is now a highly rated medical consultant / Professor. So why these nonsensical 160/180 cut off points for 16-19yrs kids. Personally non of my 4 kids entered the university with less than 230 (232-270) score.

  5. these guys shud stp trying to make money for the fed govt and polytechnics. Onstead of addressing the main issue dy re telling us bout gettn admission with 160-180 as cut-off marks. Jamb shud b questioned about the outrageous marks dey awarded to candidates. Are they telling us ppl became duller over the 1yr interval btw the last utme? What about the buks we werer made to read, they were expensive bt necessasry. Y didnt we have questns frm that angle? These are the questns the honourable minister shud ask Dibu Ojerinde instead of deciding the cut off mark for admission into unis and polytechnics. If they knw they want to raid unis of overpopulation they shud try anoda means without hurting our feelings last yr it was one of the core subjects in wassce , ds yr utme and nbdy’s said anythng bout. I thnk jamb shud b open about their markimg sche,e and they shud take their tym. Instead of making ppl sit through5-6yrs awaiting admissn into unis y nt introduce interestn educatnal packages that will ensure a lnger time interval to reduce overpopulatn in unis and they shud update their equipment. IF THIS IS NOT DONE NIGERIA WILL CONTINUE TO REMAIN1000 FEET BEHIND

  6. sorry 4 any grammatical error in my post. It’s nt easy typing with a fne. I’ld lyk to make sum corrections *onstead- instead, *raid-rid, *sche,e -scheme, . And i forgt to complete the last sentence so it shuda gone lyk ds: IF THIS IS NOT DONE NIGERIA WILL CONTINUE TO REMAIN FARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR BEHIND ALL OTHER COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD. WONDER WHY IT’S STILL BEING REFERRED TO AS ‘THE GIANT OF AFRICA’

  7. Pls,I’ve changed my institution before the news reached me. Now don’t know what to do again, I prefer my previous institution .My previous institution are OBAFEMI AWOLOWO UNIVERSITY ILE IFE(OAU) and UNIVERSITY OF ILORIN(UNI ILORIN) pls what do u think I can do, can I still use my previous jamb slip? I scored (199) in Jamb so that’s why I change my institution, but now that the cut-off mark is 180 i can write their PUME. PLS HeLP ME, I DON’T KNOW WHAT TO DO. I need to know ur view on this issue

  8. The major task is to ensure transparency in the admission process. I will advocate that the authorities mandate all institutions to use ICT to conduct post-UTME tests. This will ensure that candidates see their scores immediately & the result published promptly. Why would it take JAMB UTME one week to publish the result of over 1million candidates answering 400 questions in 4 subjects but takes 1 to 3 months for some institutions to publish their admission iro 50 questions in post-UTME test for less than 100,000 candidates. This is where the whole issue of transparency and sanitization will begin. Let the tertiary institutions publish in the dailies & on their websites the respective scores of candidates & the basis of arriving at the composite score for admission purposes. This way, our institutions will set the pace in the fight against corruption. Let it start from the citadel of learning. When it starts here, it will be extended to elections bc Prof. Jega used the heads of these institutions as the returning officers in the last general elections. Why should candidates harbour the fear that even if they pass utme & post-utme tests they may not get admission.

  9. Reducing the cut-off mark to 160-180 is not the issue we should be concerned about,i guest by now we should all know that in federal universities they dont offer admission to candidates with low scores.the rule is the higher your jamb score the higher your post ume score….so jamb should know…reducing the cut-off mark is waste of time..they should universities to conduct examinations with out calculating jamb ratios…i.e whatever a candidate scores should be recorded for he or she….and universities should redcuce their cut-off mark too…,.

  10. the honorable minister of education, it is high time u address this issue of jamb and post ume in this country we were told that jamb is the only board responsible for the university admission why are we writing post ume. when u pas ur jamb and fail post ume no admissio. for you minister of education should help us sort this issue out