The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, JAMB, on Tuesday approved 160 and above as this year’s national minimum cut-off mark for admission into public universities.
The decision was reached at the 19th Policy Meeting on Admissions to Tertiary Institutions in Nigeria which held at the Bola Babalakin Auditorium, Gbongan, Osun State
The board also approved 140 as minimum UTME score for admission into private universities and 110 for admission into private polytechnics.
The JAMB’s Registrar, Professor Ishaq Oloyede, in his presentation said the board received the total of 1, 886, 509 (One Million, eight hundred and eighty six, five hundred and nine) applications, in which over 95 per cent applied to universities, and only 1 per cent applied to Colleges of Education.
Oloyede further disclosed that the first choice admission process would take place between August 21 and November 16, 2019 for public universities, and 17th November and 17th December 2019 would be for the second choice admission process.
He also appealed to universities to give special preference to candidates with disabilities, especially blind candidates, as he commended Bayero University, Kano for coming down from 180 to 150 for blind students.
Oloyede called on Private universities to moderately charge fees in order not to take education beyond the reach of people.
He opined that the exorbitant fees being charged by private universities responsible for low patronage.
The Minister for Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu, who was represented by the Director of Tertiary Education, Ministry of Education, Mr Ojo Joel Samuel, in his remarks said the Policy Meeting remains the acceptable forum where plans and programmes for Admissions are discussed and approved to guide the conduct of placement of suitably qualified candidates to Tertiary institutions in Nigeria.
He stated that the outcome of the recent investigation of the UTME registration of candidates carried out by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board is a pointer to the fact that the examination industry requires a surgical process in order to sanitise the system.
“All the public examination bodies and educational institutions should therefore undertake forensic audits of their registration procedure. The current system which provides avenues for candidates to, through registration and examination processes, circumvent the due process is inimical to the Nation’s educational system,” he said.
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