By Adedapo Adesanya
Amid a five-month university strike that has millions of Nigerian students at home, the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) and heads of tertiary institutions in the country have fixed the cut-off mark for admissions in the 2022/2023 academic session.
At the 2022 Policy meeting on admissions presided over by the Minister of Education in Abuja, Mr Adamu Adamu, the minimum cut-off marks for universities was pegged at 140 while polytechnics and colleges of education have 100 as the minimum score.
Speaking on this, the Registrar of JAMB, Mr Ishaq Oloyede, who announced the cut-off after votes by vice-chancellors of universities, rectors of polytechnics and provosts of colleges of education, said the implication is that every institution has the right to fix its own cut-off mark even up to 220.
However, no one will be allowed to go below the agreed minimum cut-off marks of 100 for colleges of education, 100 for polytechnics and 140 for universities.
The meeting also advocated the need for a review of admission criteria to give 10 per cent discretional power of admission to heads of tertiary institutions.
In other education-related development, President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday directed the Minister of Education to proffer a solution to the challenge and report back to him in two weeks.
The President gave the directive during a meeting with relevant government Ministries, Agencies, and Departments (MDAs) where he received briefings on the current face-off with the university unions since February 14, among other issues.
Modupe Gbadeyanka