Nigerian blogger scolds angry parents over JAMB cut-off marks
A Nigerian blogger has jumped into the controversy trailing the new, and infamous, university admission policy in Nigeria.
Although the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board set the cut-off marks for degree and non-degree courses for 180 and 150 respectively; JAMB said schools were free to go higher depending on the number of candidates they got.
JAMB infuriated Nigerian parents after it became known that the body, without notice, had deployed students to schools they did not choose when sitting for the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).
There was public outrage earlier in the week after many students who made the cut discovered they could not even get to write post-UTME exams in the schools of their choice.
JAMB said it deployed them elsewhere to help schools people seldom choose get more students.
While parents have not only threatened to sue JAMB over the unpopular policy, they had also lashed out at degree awarding schools that go beyond the 180 cut-off marks.
Henry Okelue said the furore that met the cut-off marks was uncalled for.
A product of the University of Benin and the Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen; Henry even went on to criticize JAMB for reducing the cut-off marks for degree courses to 180.
He, however , had no words for JAMB’s decision to “deploy prospective undergrads like soldier.”
“This new JAMB cut-off is an extreme dumbing down of the quality of graduates we desire,” Henry said via his Twitter handle @4eyedmonk on Friday.
He said “180 was the cut-off in those days for Poly JAMB.”
“There was a time 190/300 will not get you into Yabatech or Poly Ibadan. Now parents are going to court to insist on 180/400 to enter UNILAG.”
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