Reduction in JAMB cut-off marks: My worries

Somebody should please enlighten me. Is there any special reason JAMB reduced cut-off mark for University and Polytechnic/College of Education admission for 2017/2018 academic year to 120 and 100 respectively?

When the cut-off mark was 180 and 150 respectively, tertiary institutions were hardly able to admit all who made it. In fact, five universities – Uniben, Unilag, OAU, UI and Federal University of Technology, Akure, had their cut-off mark increased to 200. Even at that, I bet my next salary that no student got admitted with that score. I know as a fact that Uniben and Unilag for instance, would not admit anyone scoring less than 250. The competition was that stiff.

Now that JAMB has further reduced minimum score from 180/150 to 120/100, the competition will get even stiffer. Does this portend good tidings for education standard in our dear country? I say no. It will instead encourage mediocrity. Excellence is encouraged not by decreasing value but by increasing it.

I am trying to understand the rationale behind this reduction of marks. At a time Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) is shouting itself hoarse over fallen standard of education occasioned by years of neglect and poor funding of public tertiary institutions, it defeats reason to put in place a policy that would further exacerbate it. Are our public tertiary institutions now better funded? Do they now have more capacity to admit more students? Are they now better equipped? What is the real reason for this reduction in cut-off marks? Are we not further reducing the already fallen standard of education? Or is some special interest being satisfied somewhere?

If the concern of government is that more and more high school leavers are getting frustrated for inability to gain tertiary admission under the 180/150 cut-off regime, my question is, in what way will this reduction of cut-off marks not make it worse? Surely, there will now be more people who would be shut out of tertiary educations for the simple reason that the existing institutions simply do not have the capacity to admit more. The direct offshoot would be desperation, thus exacerbating corruption in admission process. Surely, admission will now be for the highest bidder. This, though, is not to negate the fact that there are still within tertiary education system men and women of high integrity who will not compromise values for whatever reason.

What the government should have done, in my opinion, is to chat a clear-cut career path for high school leavers who could not secure admission into tertiary institutions. We must wake up to the fact that there is, today, not a structured plan to accommodate this category of Nigerians in the extant order. National Directorate of Employment (NDE) and National Open Apprenticeship Scheme (NOAS) were supposed to fill this gap, but we all know they are unable to do so due to poor funding.

If the Federal Government cannot effectively run its scheme, neither can the states and local governments. As I write, no state or local government in Nigeria boasts of a structured plan for skill acquisition for the youth population. All they have in this regard is occasional ad-hoc uncoordinated arrangement designed mainly for political purposes. Any wonder crime and youth restiveness are on the rise?

Methinks government should have, in collaboration with states and local governments, and even private sector, revived and expanded the NDE and NOAS with better funding so that high school leavers who could not gain tertiary admission can avail the opportunity to pursue a vocation.

I fail to understand the reason for this reduction in JAMB cut-off marks. It seems to me the only beneficiary would be privately owned tertiary institutions. Those who fail to secure admission in public schools would of course find their way to private institutions who would be ever willing to take them in. With the crazy tuition these private institutions charge, more and more parents would find themselves in financial dire straits. And in order to make ends meet and be able to put their children through school, they would resort to desperate, corrupt ways to make extra cash.

How does this reduction in JAMB cut-off marks help the nation? Somebody should enlighten us.