New JAMB Cut Off Mark :The neglect of the educational sector is now official"

JAMB candidates (Press)

On Tuesday, August 22, 2017, the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) made a huge announcement.
According to JAMB, the cut-off marks for admission into universities and polytechnics are now 120 and 100 respectively.

This a huge slice from the previous cut off mark of 200 for university admission. This surprising announcement from JAMB hasn't been met with applause.

JAMB candidates at the exam centres during the previously held Unified Tertiary Matriculation Exams. (PremiumTimes)


The state of education in Nigeria has been a source of concern since the late 80s with a decreasing funding for schools and the emergence of violent confraternity activities in universities.

The huge slash of the JAMB cut off the mark has finally confirmed what many Nigerians have been saying for years, the education system in Nigeria.

The lowering of the bar for many half-baked students to get admission into universities is suicidal. It's the same as generals enlisting children soldiers and pushing them to the front line of the war to die.

When the cut off was higher, universities weren't exactly spoiled for the choice of admitting young geniuses. With this new cut, off mark expect more young Nigerians who didn't receive proper education in primary and secondary schools to knock on the doors of many ivory towers.

Public Nigerian universities have stopped being a centre for knowledge a long time ago. It is more of a passage of rite more than anything else. For many, the university is just where you chill for four years and get a degree that reduces in valuable by the day,

Four years later (if ASUU allows) after learning next to nothing they enter a labour market that cannot accommodate them. Nigeria's population crisis cannot absorb the graduates that enter the workforce annually. With this new cut, off mark expect the unemployment level to further rise.

Instead of the government to put forward a plan to restructure Nigeria's educational system, it has decided to set fire the whole thing. The lowering of cut off mark solves no problem. This controversial move by JAMB is a sign that the men in charge of our educational system have given up and abandoning the dilapidated structure. It is a cowardly move.

Young people in Nigeria are now on their own. Unless your parents can afford the expensive tuition of private universities, then the chances of getting a quality education are very slim.

It is now clear that a young Nigerian has been abandoned by the powers that be. If you are waiting on Nigerian politicians and leaders to give you top notch education, you are on an endless wait.

Reducing of the cutoff mark is an abandonment of the educational sector.