JAMB: Educationally Disadvantaged States Cut-Off Mark Should be Scrapped

The chairman of an education NGO, Exam Ethics Marshals International (EEMI), Mr Ike Onyechere, has called for uniform cut-off mark of admissions into tertiary institutions in the country.

Onyechere who made this call in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Friday said the criteria for choosing candidates in educationally advantaged and educationally disadvantaged states should be removed by the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB).

It is a fact that candidates from educationally disadvantaged states had in the past had lower cut-off marks than candidates from educationally advantaged states.

Mr Onyechere therefore urged JAMB to look into the issue and make necessary adjustment, stating that every candidate seeking admission into Nigerian universities should be made to gain admission with a uniform cut-off mark. His words below.

“ If you look at it, Akwa Ibom was carved out from Cross River and Akwa Ibom is listed as educationally advantaged state while Cross River is catgorised as an educationally disadvantaged state.

“In other words, the candidates from Cross River will have a lower cut-off mark than candidates from Akwa Ibom. For me, it doesn’t make sense.”

“ Kaduna State has over 20 Federal Government educational institutions but it is being categorised as educationally disadvantaged.

“So those are the kind of anomalies that JAMB should remove and those are the kind of things I am referring to as higher dynamics of malpractice.”

“All those things should be removed. If you pass, you pass, so you don’t have to water down the quality of education because you want to accommodate certain people.”