JAMB NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR FIXING MINIMUM TOLERABLE ADMISSION MARKS – OLOYEDE

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The Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board(JAMB), Prof. Is-haq Oloyede, has  explained that the Board does not fix the so-called ‘cut-off mark’, which should, at any rate, be rightly referred to as the “minimum tolerable admission score”, as it is being insinuated in some quarters.

The Registrar said the explanation became necessary to correct the erroneous impression that minimum tolerable admission scores for respective institutions were decided by JAMB saying it is the responsibility of the tertiary institutions themselves to decide their respective institutional minimum tolerable admission score. He further stated that what was arrived at policy meetings were  benchmark national minimum tolerable admission scores for admission into the nation’s tertiary institutions. This score, according  to him, is the minimum score a candidate, who sat the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), is required to attain for the  purpose of admission into Nigerian tertiary institutions noting that what JAMB does is to simply escalate same to the public and ensure that the institution does not go lower than that.

Furthermore, he said the minimum tolerable score is a pruning mechanism to peg application limits to manageable size through which candidates compete for available spaces in the nation’s tertiary institutions.

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In the same vein, he stated that it is erroneous for parents or candidates to make claims of meeting the minimum tolerable score and as such should be given automatic admission adding that the minimum score was just a benchmark  and not for automatic placement of candidates for admission as there are other variables and parameters to be considered.

It is to be recalled that participants at the 2024 Policy Meeting on Admission had approved the National Minimum Tolerable UTME Score (NTMUS), for the 2024 Admission into the nation’s higher institutions as 140 for universities while 100 was approved for polytechnics and colleges of education and innovative enterprises institutions.

Earlier, the Registrar had explained that the institutions, which proposed lower minimum tolerable scores, would have to increase their benchmarks to the agreed minimum tolerable points. He, however, added that institutions have the liberty to peg the institutional tolerable score  above the agreed minimum points.

It is also worthy of note that Pan-Atlantic University, Ibeju-Lekki, Lagos, had pegged its minimum admissible score at  220 while some other universities fixed theirs at 200. However, by implication of the approved minimum tolerable scores of 140 and 100, no institution could go below these approved scores as indicated for their category.