The Federal Government has reversed the decision by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) to allow candidates that applied to universities with surplus applicants for the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examinations (UTME) to be rea$$igned to other universities with lower number of applicants than their capacities.
This was followed by several protests against this policy by concerned parents and students in some parts of the country. Some days ago, some candidates who chose the University of Lagos, UNILAG, and their parents staged a peaceful protest in Lagos both at Unilag and the Federal High Court.
The Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Education, Mr.MacJohn Nwaobiala, disclosed this to State House correspondents on Tuesday after briefing PresidentBuhari of his ministry’s activities and challenges at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
The examination body, JAMB adopted the policy its 2015 Combined Policy Meeting. However, an order from the Federal High court, has compelled Unilag and Jamb to include any students that scored 200 and above.
Other universities have also effected the change. The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, JAMB, has repealed its earlier decision to redistribute candidates that sat for this year’s exams to institutions they (candidates) did not initially choose while filling their forms.
JAMB Registrar, Professor Dibu Ojerinde, had explained that the directive was to help moderate the effect of spill overs from top cla$$ institutions, which insist on not reducing their cut off marks, including UNILAG. JAMB had announced cut off marks of 180 for universities in the country, while 150 for polytechnics and
colleges of education. But the examination body has now rescinded its decision and has asked candidates to proceed to their first choice of institution for their post-UME exams following the court’s ruling.
