JAMB cancels general cut-off marks, Schools to decide benchmarks

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, on Tuesday, cancelled general cut-off marks for admission into tertiary institutions and gave schools the freedom to set their individual minimum benchmarks for admission.

The Board took the decision at the 2021 policy meeting, which was held virtually, and chaired by the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu.

The policy meeting, chaired by the Minister of Education, usually has all heads of tertiary institutions, heads of regulatory agencies in the sector, and other critical stakeholders such as the chairmen of the committees on education at the lower and upper chambers of the National Assembly in attendance.

Earlier in August, JAMB had released a bulletin on the policy meeting, stating, “This meeting kick-starts the admission process into the nation’s tertiary institutions.

Speaking during the meeting, Registrar of JAMB, Prof. Is-haq Oloyede, said, “Some universities such as the University of Maiduguri, proposed 150; Usman Dan Fodio University, Sokoto, proposed 140; Pan Atlantic University proposed 210; University of Lagos 200; Lagos State University, 190; Covenant University 190; and Bayero University, Kano, 180.

“Institutions have now been given the liberty to decide cut-off marks; there will be no cut-off marks [stipulation] from JAMB.”

On the deadline for the closure of admissions, the stakeholders resolved to allow the education ministry to decide, as they could not agree on the December 31, 2021 deadline for all public institutions and January 31, 2022 for all private institutions.

Stakeholders also adopted the 2021 admission guidelines, which provide that all applications for part-time or full-time programmes for degrees, NCE, OND, and others must be posted only through JAMB.

The meeting approved that, for Direct Entry, the maximum score a candidate could present is six and the minimum is two or an E, as required by law.

“Given the critical nature of the decisions to be taken at the meeting, it would be streamed live on the Board’s website, www.jamb.gov.ng, on its Facebook handle ‘@JAMBULLETIN’ and other social media platforms.”

Warning tertiary institutions against commencing admission process before the policy meeting, the bulletin added, “The Board makes it clear that it is an abuse of process for any institution to commence any admission exercise before this meeting, as it is this forum that gives this authorisation.”