The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, JAMB, has approved 140 as the cut-off mark for 2024 admission into the nation’s universities and 100 for Polytechnics and Colleges of Education (COEs), respectively.
The National Minimum Tolerable UTME Score (NTMUS), popularly known as the cut-off mark, for 2024 admission into tertiary institutions was arrived at last Thursday during the 2024 Annual Policy Meeting on admissions, which was held at the National Judicial Institute (NJI) Headquarters, in Jabi, Abuja.
The meeting was held following the successful conduct of the 2024 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), where a total of 1,989,668 registered candidates sat for this year’s UTME. Out of the 1,989,668 registered candidates, 80,810 were absent, while a total of 1,908,858 sat for the UTME within six days of the examination.
The Policy Meeting was Chaired by the Honourable Minister of Education (HME), Professor Tahir Mamman, SAN, OON, which decided the benchmark following recommendations by the heads of institutions.
The Registrar and Chief Executive Office of JAMB, Professor Is-haq Oloyede, who announced the cutoff marks, explained that individual institutions were at liberty to raise their minimum benchmark approved at the policy meeting but could not go below what was approved for various institutions. Meanwhile, after the protest that greeted his decision to benchmark entry year into tertiary institutions in the country to 18 years, the Honourable Minister of Education, Professor Mamman has rescinded the decision. He said his decision that only candidates who have clocked 18 years be offered admissions now takes effect from 2025. To this effect, the Minister said heads of tertiary institutions could be allowed to admit candidates who are 16 years of age. The Minister had to rescind the earlier decision and bow to the pressures, following the argument that students under the age of 18 had already registered, sat, and passed the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination, UTME, and were awaiting admission.
Leading the motion, Vice Chancellor of Elizade University Professor Kayode Thadius Ijiadunola who got massive support from other Heads, Registrars, and Admission Officers participating in the Policy Meeting, proposed 16 as the minimum age requirement for admission into tertiary institutions. He said, “What happens to those who have written this year’s exams and passed their exams? We reject 18 years as the minimum age requirement and are proposing 16 years.”
While the hall erupted in support of 16 years as a minimum requirement, the Registrar of JAMB, Professor Is-haq Oloyede, also asked where parents and candidates were rushing to. Professor Oloyede said: “The only point is they have taken examinations and at that time they were not told or aware and therefore if we want to enforce it, it should be from subsequent years.”
The Minister in response had said, “I can work with that but I want to remind you of one thing, even that argument cannot stand if we want to go by the law which states 6-3-3-4 as our system of education. “It won’t stand, but for practical reasons, for this year, I will allow it to stand.” Reiterating the Minister’s decision amidst a resounding applause, Professor Oloyede added, “We thank the Minister for conceding but from next year we will enforce it.”
Earlier, the Minister while delivering his address as chairman of the 2024 Joint Admissions Matriculation Board’s (JAMB) Policy Meeting on Education called for enforcement of 18 years as the new minimum admission age for admission into tertiary institutions in the country.
Immediately after the Minister of Education, Professor Tahir Mamman made the announcement, the stakeholders who turned out their members from across tertiary institutions in the country, voiced resistance which turned the session into a rowdy one. However, normalcy was restored later with the intervention and truce called by the agreement of the JAMB Registrar and the Minister of Education to allow the 16 years subsist this year.
In his remark, the Deputy Senate President, Distinguished Senator Jibril Barau said the ceremony not only celebrated their collective achievements but also served as a testament to the unwavering dedication. He added that it also served as hard work and promotion of excellence that had become the hallmarks of the nation’s tertiary admission processes.
At the event, the Merged 2021 and 2022 National Tertiary Admission Performance Merit Award (NATAP-M) were presented to deserving Tertiary Institutions at the Hairat Ade Balogun Auditorium, Body of Benchers Headquarters, Jabi, Abuja; venue of the event.
Meanwhile, the University of Ilorin (UNILORIN) emerged the best institution at the Joint Admission Matriculation Board (JAMB) National Tertiary Admissions’ Performance-Merit Award (NATAP-M Award) for the year 2021 and 2022. UNILORIN was awarded a N500 million prize after securing 12 points in the overall category of five elements of the award.
Ahmed Bello University (ABU), Zaria emerged second best institution with 11 points and got a cash prize of N75 million while Borno State University came third with nine points and a cash prize of N50million.
Also Kaduna Polytechnic, Kaduna emerged as best Polytechnic with 12 points and got N50 million prize at the sectoral awards while Federal College of Education, Zaria emerged as the best College of Education with 11 points and won N50 million prize in the year under review. For Innovation Enterprise Institutions, PEFTI Film Institute, Lagos emerged winner with six points and a cash prize of N10 million.
Professor Is-haq Oloyede, said the overall award prize was increased to N750million to help winner achieve tangible result with the money. He said any institution that emerged overall winner cannot win it again until after five years to enable the price go round. The Registrar disclosed that this year, the Board remitted over N3.5 billion to the Federal Government and also set aside the N750 million that should be given to the winning institutions.
JAMB also received several Goodwill messages from various regulatory bodies which included those of the National Universities Commission (NUC), delivered by Mr Chris J. Maiyaki; National Board for Technical Education (NBTE), Professor Mohammed Idris Bugaje; National Commission for Colleges of Education (NCCE), Professor Paulinus Chijioke Okwelle; National Youths Service Corps (NYSC), Brigadier-General, Yusha’u Dogara Ahmed; and Chairman, Senate Committee on Tertiary Education and TETFUND, Distinguished Senator Dandutse Muntari, among others.
Other dignitaries at the event included the Honourable Minister of State for Education, Hon. (Dr.) Yusuf Sununu; Managing Director of Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND), Akintunde Sawyer, among others. The JAMB Policy Meeting is an Annual Stakeholders meeting usually convened yearly before the commencement of the Admissions year.
The Policy Meeting was preceded by a One-Day Training for Admission Officers of Tertiary Institutions on Central Admission Processing System (CAPS) for the upcoming Admission Cycle.