Stop Special Cut Off Mark for Educationally Disadvantaged States – Educationist

An Abuja based educationist, Mr Ike Onyechere, who is the Chairman, Exam Ethics Marshals International (EEMI), has called for uniform cut-off mark of admissions into tertiary institutions in the country.

Onyechere made this call in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Friday where he suggested that the criteria for choosing candidates in educationally advantaged and educationally disadvantaged states should be removed by the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB).

The Chairman noted that candidates from educationally disadvantaged states usually had lower cut-off marks than candidates from educationally advantaged states.

He urged JAMB to look into the issue and make necessary adjustment According to him, every candidate seeking admission into Nigerian universities should be made to gain admission with a uniform cut-off mark.

“ If you look at it, Akwa Ibom was carved out from Cross River and Akwa Ibom is listed as educationally advantaged state while Cross River is catgorised as an educationally disadvantaged state.

“In other words, the candidates from Cross River will have a lower cut-off mark than candidates from Akwa Ibom. For me, it doesn’t make sense.”

He explained that most of the states listed as educationally disadvantaged had more Federal Government institutions than states listed as educationally advantaged.

“ Kaduna State has over 20 Federal Government educational institutions but it is being categorised as educationally disadvantaged.

“So those are the kind of anomalies that JAMB should remove and those are the kind of things I am referring to as higher dynamics of malpractice.”

Onyechere further called on JAMB to come up with policies that would give the youths equal opportunity to access tertiary institutions in the country.

He also said that accessing admission should not be slanted in favour and against certain people in some areas of the country. Onyechere said that accessing admission would boost the quality of education in the educationally disadvantaged states.

“All those things should be removed. If you pass, you pass, so you don’t have to water down the quality of education because you want to accommodate certain people.”

Culled from Vanguard Newspaper.