SAN FRANCISCO, June 02, (THEWILL) – The Federal Government has scrapped the conduct of post Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examinations (UTME) for candidates seeking admission into higher institutions in the country.
This was disclosed by the Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu, on Thursday, in Abuja, as he declared open the 2016 Combined Policy Meeting on Admissions to Universities, Polytechnics and other higher institutions in Nigeria.
The Minister expressed confidence in the examination conducted by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), but asked the exam body to stop extra charges on several categories of changes on admissions such as the change of course, change of school and others.
“As far as I am concerned the nation has confidence in what JAMB is doing. The universities should not be holding another examination and if the universities have any complain against JAMB let them bring it and then we address it,” he said.
“If JAMB is qualified enough to conduct tests and they have conducted test then there will be no need to conduct another test for students to gain admission.”
Meanwhile, JAMB’s Registrar and Chief Executive Officer, Prof. Dibu Ojerinde, revealed that the body has pegged the cut – off mark for admission for 2016 at 180.
He disclosed that the 180 benchmark, applies to all universities and higher institutions in the country, including polytechnics, colleges of education, and others but made exceptions for some universities.
“180 is given, no institution will go below 180 this year, some universities can go above it, I know University of Ife will not go below 200 and University of Lagos will not go below 200 and also UI. All these ones stand but 180 as bench mark for others,” he said.
“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. Re-distribution is already ongoing, because it is embedded in the registration procedure.”
Story by David Oputah
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