National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) on Wednesday called on the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) to “stop its baseless and fruitless efforts to justify a very unpopular policy”.
While reacting to a statement by JAMB’s Head of Media, Dr Fabian Benjamin, NANS President, Comrade Chinonso Obasi said it was ridiculous for JAMB to claim that the review of cut off points was to stop the quest for foreign education.
Benjamin had described as unnecessary the controversies over the reduction of cut-off marks for 2017 admission exercise into tertiary institutions by stakeholders at its policy meeting.
JAMB said Nigerians should be concerned about how to address the flight of citizens in glorified secondary schools called foreign Universities in places like country Ghana, Uganda, Gambia and others.
“It is expedient to state here that the worst admitted cut-off mark in a Nigerian institution is far better than allowing them to fly out to some of the institution they are attending out there which we all know are nothing to be proud of”, JAMB said.
But Obasi fired back, stating that evidence have shown that the worst student in Nigeria have turned out to be the best student abroad because of the enabling educational policies, teaching facilities, quality of teachers and consistency in study time.
According to Obasi, “students ability to learn and come out with outstanding performance is function of the enabling environment that is deliberately created by responsible and responsive policies like what is obtained abroad and not retroactive and retrogressive policies like what JAMB is trying to push”.
“It is only the children of the rich that school abroad and so JAMB is insulating that the children of the rich are brainless and cannot compete with the children of the poor who patronize indigenous tertiary institutions”.
The NANS President calls on JAMB to work with the stakeholders to explore and find lasting solutions to the mirage of challenges facing the Nigerian educational sector that would facilitate effective and efficient learning rather than embarking on an inglorious exercise of reviewing cut off marks.
Obasi insisted that at a time that the nation should be thinking of improving the prospects of competitive learning in line with the dictates of contemporary times, JAMB is looking at lowering standards to encourage indolence and ineptitude.
“JAMB’s position is certainly not in the interest of the growth of education in the country and the future of young people in the country”, he added.
Obasi regretted the recent unfortunate fire incident that occurred at the female hostel of the Plateau State Polytechnic in Jos campus and condole with the Students and Management of the Institution.
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