No more post-JAMB test, says FG

The Federal Government has said that universi­ties’ conduct of the con­troversial post-Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examinations (UTME) for candidates seeking admission into universities, pol­ytechnics and colleges of educa­tion, is no longer feasible.

The Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu, stated this on Thursday in Abuja at the 2016 combined policy meeting on admissions to tertiary insti­tutions in the country.

Adamu argued that it was unnecessary for individual in­stitutions to conduct separate examinations to guarantee ad­mission.

He said: “As far as I am con­cerned, the Joint Admissions and Matriculations (JAMB) has built a level of confidence in terms of conducting the UTME, so, a situ­ation where the universities con­duct other examinations is un­necessary.

“If the universities have any complaint against JAMB, let them channel them to the appro­priate quarters and we would ad­dress it.

“But, if JAMB is qualified enough to conduct tests and they have conducted tests, then there will be no need to conduct an­other test for students to gain ad­mission,” the minister said.

Adamu, however, frowned at the various charges being im­posed on candidates by JAMB, which he listed on the change of course, change of school and sev­eral others.

Meanwhile, the Federal Gov­ernment has pegged (JAMB) cut-off mark for admission into uni­versities, polytechnics, colleges of education for the 2016/2017 aca­demic session at 180.

After a debate with delegates from various institutions during the meeting, JAMB’s Registrar, Prof. Dibu Ojerinde, informed journalists that no tertiary insti­tution in the country would go below the 180 cut-off set by the examination body.

He said: “180 is given, no in­stitution will go below 180 this year; and some universities can go above it, I know Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife will not go below 200 and the Uni­versity of Lagos will not go be­low 200 and also the University of Ibadan. These ones stand but 180 is the bench mark for others.

“This year, we have more than enough candidates; we have over 1.5 million candidates so, we will get enough candidates to take in all the schools if they are serious. Redistribution is al­ready ongoing because it is em­bedded in the registration proce­dure,” Ojerinde said.