Ex-VC, others fault JAMB over 120 cut off mark for varsities admission
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By Femi SHODUNKE
NIGERIA: EX-VICE Chancellor of the University of Lagos, Prof. Oyewusi Ibidapo-Obe and a group of Nigerians have taken the Joint Admission Matriculation Board (JAMB) to task over the 120 score approved as cut off mark for admission into the nation’s universities.
The angry former Vice-Chancellor and other fellow citizens faulted the new measure at the weekend while contributing to discussion on a social media network group chat, Penpushing, founded by a journalist, Prince Dimeji Kayode-Adedeji.
To them, a score of 120 out of 400 for admission purposes was too low, which should not under whatever guise be a national standard.
“Gentlemen Penpushing Platform, I would have been more comfortable if JAMB had announced that there is no more national cut off point,” Ibidapo-Obe said. “A score of 120 out of 400 is a woeful failure and that should not under any guise be a national standard. It gives ‘filip’ to those who insist that national educational standard has fallen very low.”
While offering her views, the Vice-Chancellor of Tai Solarin University of Education, Ijebu-Ode in Ogun State, Prof. Oluyemisi Obilade, said that all vice-chancellors made their positions clear as to their universities cut off marks.
Obilade said: “I attended as the VC of TASUED. All the VCs there made our positions clear as to our individual university cut off marks. However, some universities, which shall remain unnamed, went to 120.”
“May I respectfully submit that that university was exercising its fundamental right. Like it or not,” Obilade, who said that she was present at the meeting where the cut off mark was agreed upon, stressed.
“Sirs and Mas, the entry requirements for an ivy league university like Harvard is not the same as that of a community college. We are getting to a level in this country where proper evaluation will be done by parents and employers before interfacing with the products of our universities.
“This is what is done in saner climes. We provided information as requested on our cut off as well as some of this background. However, my submission is not a radical departure from my position. Integrity is important to me as an academic.”
She further said: “I just did not think it proper for all of us at the meeting as VCs, Rectors, Provosts and Registrars to sit back and watch Prof. Oloyede being bashed at the court of public opinion without clarifying issues. Good day my learned professionals on this platform. I rest my case.”
Also contributing, Mr. Timothy Oluwasegun Alabi, said that “for me, I think the decision might be to make public universities more attractive just as Rwanda has successively done, thereby making people to look less in the direction of private universities, the government also will be forced to pay more attention to education and fund it appropriately.”
Alabi, who is a staff of the University of Ilorin, Ilorin, further said: “Secondly, it might be a way of curbing examination malpractice which has advanced to its peak. A serious candidate will see 120 marks as obtainable without any ‘help’ and jettison any idea of involving him/herself in malpractice.”
“Moreover, JAMB has said that the 120 marks is just the benchmark, institutions can raise their cut off above, but not below it. Raising it above has no limit. It’s only Prof. Oloyede as the Registrar that can tell the actual reason(s) behind the decision,” Alabi, who is the Public Relations Officer of the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities of his university, also said.
A lawyer, Mr. Benjamin Ogunmodede, declared: “I am equally shell-shocked too, as to the abysmally low cut-off mark for JAMB’s admission for this current Academic Year! Why now? Our great Prof. Oloyede, your reputation far more than this or above this?
“This low mark should be rejected by all lovers of qualitative education in Nigeria. Let the mediocres admit their people with 1% because this is mediocres’ decision.” “No wonder they left a Professor as substantive Minister of Education in the 1st place and made him a ‘junior’ Minister. You can now see the reason why we need restructuring now, now. God deliver Nigeria! Ogunmodede stated.
Similarly, Deaconess Funke Fadugba, a veteran journalist and educationist, said that the JAMB boss was not being
forced to take the decision as being made to believe in some quarters.
Fadugba, who was once the Chairperson of the Nigeria Union of Journalists in Lagos State, added that Oloyede should learn to say no instead of compromising.
“With respect, who is forcing him? If he had built a name before now, at his age, what is left is for him to protect same,” she said, adding: “Nigerians should learn to say NO instead of compromising. Who were the stakeholders that JAMB said agreed to the slash?”
“ASUU, NASU, parents or the protesting students? Is it not better to remain an ordinary citizen than get a position that will call one’s reputation to question?”
A politician, Hon. Dapo Adeyemi, said: “I think he’s being ‘forced’ to adopt the cut off mark to satisfy students from the educationally disadvantaged areas. How could one justify 120/400 as a pass mark?”
Also expressing his views, a Public Relations expert, Mr. Edward Adegbite
Ademosu, said: “The JAMB cut off marks should naturally be a collective/joint decision of critical stakeholders including the Ministry of Education.”
“Ironically, the fall out of the disastrous ‘low cut off marks’ is a baby of Prof. Oloyede’s JAMB to bear for now. It was one of the abysmal decisions that any seasoned technocrat would take, following series of its rejection by the primary stakeholders,” Ademosu, a past president of the Association of Corporate Affairs Managers of Banks in Nigeria (ACAMB), stressed.
“Ask Prof in private what informed such a retrogressive policy, he would give loads of reasons that partly will bother on the balancing act of the political dichotomy of the Nation… a section is craving for qualitative and excellence in its educational pursuits, a section would not mind contending with its mediocrity,” Ademosu said, adding: “Yet, in our clime, the mediocres laud it over the informed, the knowledgeable and progressives. We are a product of our political antecedents…”
Mr. Abiola Adegbepa, however, declared: “I believe the VCs and other stakeholders were present in the meeting where the cut-off mark decision was taken. They should have objected at that point. Why now?”
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