By Felix Kassim
The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) says only candidates who scored 160 marks and above in this year’s Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) are qualified to seek admission into any university in the country for the 2020/2021 academic session.
The Board also pegged the cut-off mark for polytechnic admission and colleges of education at 120 while that of innovative institutions was put at 100 and above.
Registrar/Chief Executive of JAMB, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, made this known on Tuesday in Abuja after 2020 Policy Meeting on admission.
The meeting which attracted head of tertiary education institutions who joined the event through Zoom (online) application was chaired by the Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu.
According to the JAMB’s boss, the meeting also okayed August 2020 for the commencement of admission for the new session, even as it warned tertiary education institutions against charging more than N2,000 in their admission screening exercise.
Speaking on the just concluded 2019 admission, Prof. Oloyede said 612,557 candidates were offered admission while 510,957 admission spaces were unused.
On his part, Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu, represented by the Minister of State for Education, Hon. Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba, urged JAMB and tertiary education institutions to consider candidates with previous years Senior School Certificate Examination (SSCE) results and other qualifications to proceed with the admission process.
He said the government will put in place arrangements that will accommodate applicants who will be taking SSCE this year.
His words: “As major stakeholders, we must jointly come up with reactions that would realign our programmes to these new realities.
“While these reactions are being fine-tuned to check their capacities and capabilities to withstand the new reality, JAMB and tertiary institutions could take advantage of the current situation and consider candidates with previous years Senior School Certificate Examination and other qualifying results, to proceed on with the admission process.
“Whatever arrangement that the country comes up with in the long run, will surely accommodate those who will be taking the examination when the opportunity to do so is worked out.”
