Attempts by authorities of the University of Lagos, UNILAG, Akoka, and the Joint Admissions Matriculation Board, JAMB, to change the official cut-off point of JAMB from between 180 and 200 to 250 was greeted with protests by some candidates billed to participate in the school’s 2015/2016 post-Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (post-UTME).
CANDIDATES WRITING UTME IN university’s main gate.
The protesters were seen carrying placards with various inscriptions such as “Go back to the JAMB 180 cut-off mark,” “We insist that the 250 cut-off mark is unacceptable,” “Our children must not be disqualified from participating in the post-UTME screening,” among others.
However, the Registrar of UNILAG, Dr Taiwo Ipaye, said that of the 32, 000 candidates that applied for admission into the university, only 9,000 were eligible for screening.
Some parents who brought their wards to the campus for the post-UTME registration, expressed disappointment over their children’s exclusion from JAMB’s list of shortlisted candidates.
Shortlisted candidates
Vanguard gathered that the decision to increase the cut-off point to 250, especially in federal universities, considered as most sought after by candidates, was to reduce the army of candidates who chose them as their most preferred institution during the last UTME screening test.
Aside from UNILAG, other federal universities said to have increased their cut-off point from 200 to 250 are Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ife, Osun State, University of Ibadan (UI), Oyo State, University of Illorin (UNILORIN), Kwara State, and University of Nigeria (UNN), Nsukka, Enugu State.
But when contacted by Vanguard, Vice Chancellor, UI, Professor Isaac Adewole, said: “Our JAMB cut-off point to qualify candidates for post-UTME in University of Ibadan is still 200. We will use that in conjunction with the post-UTME scores of candidates to give them admission into our school.”
Parents kick: Reacting, one of the parents, Dr. Ben Emone, expressed dissatisfaction at the sudden change in procedure by the university and JAMB, noting that though his son made UNILAG his first choice, and scored 260 in the UTME, he noted that the tradition of the university had been to peg its cut-off mark at 200.
He said: “I will not take this whole thing they are trying to explain because my son passed the UTME convincingly.
‘’If there was to be any change, we should have been sensitized well ahead of time, and not just waking up one morning to change the rule of the game. All I am saying is that my son must write this post- UTME or nobody will.”
Also speaking, President, Association of Tutorial School Operators, ATSO, Dotun Sodunke, blamed the JAMB Registrar, Prof. Dibu Ojerinde, for the alleged sudden change in cut-off for five federal schools, adding that it was insensitive to the plights of parents and their children.
Sodunke said that the JAMB registrar was wrong to have introduced such last minute decision after he had announced to the public that the cut-off mark for admissions into the universities was 180.
He said the issues would have turned out differently if the registrar had gone an extra mile to carry the general public along in board’s policy making.
The ATSO President said: “I think Prof. Ojerinde has some questions to answer on this whole issue. There must be something he is not telling the public.
‘’Ojerinde must stop running JAMB as if it is his personal business empire. How can Ojerinde impose such high and unacceptable cutoff marks for five notable public universities in Nigeria under the guise of catchment, to qualify for post UTME, and you expect us not to protest?
“The worst case scenario, at least, ought to have been the normal 200 marks and above which universities like UNILAG and others were known for. If there must be anything new, it should be introduced next year after due consultations with all critical stakeholders, and get the public adequately sensitised.
‘’ For now, all we want is for all the candidates who have the cut-off mark of 200 and above to be allowed to sit for the post-UTME.
“Failure to do this, we shall take our protest to Ikorodu expressway tomorrow (today) and barricade the highway. After that, we shall also shut-down the road leading into Lagos Island on Friday. Also, we shall go to court over this sudden inhuman policy,” Sodunke threatened.
The controversial new policy
Meanwhile, it will be recalled that Joint Admission and Matriculation Board, JAMB, had announced the adoption of a policy whereby candidates of universities with surplus applicants for the Unified Matriculation Examinations, UTME, are reassigned to other universities with lower number of candidates than their capacities.
The decision for the new policy was taking during its 2015 combined policy meeting, held on July 14 in Abuja.
JAMB Registrar, Professor Dibu Ojerinde, who explained the benefit of the new policy, said: “The policy will help needy universities with lower number of candidates than their capacities have more candidates to admit.
“It will assist JAMB candidates have better chances for admission in the universities they are re-assigned to, contrary to situations where they would await admission in the universities of their first choices until the admission closes. They usually end up forfeiting admission in that session.”
JAMB reacts
However, JAMB’s spokesman, Fabian Benjamin, said what the parents agitation was uncalled for.
According to him, universities are at liberty to go higher than 180 as cut off marks, based on their peculiarities.
He said, however, that whatever cut-off points they were adopting must be uniformly applied to all candidates.
“I do not see anything wrong with what UNILAG has done. This is because a time will come when some universities may have to peg their cut-off points at 300 marks, based on performance.
“Before we send candidates to the universities, we normally ensure that we know their carrying capacities, because we do not want a situation where they will present more than they can admit.
“There are private universities and other tertiary institutions that also need candidates, so, we try to distribute evenly,” he said.
Source: VANGUARD
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