FG Scraps Post-UTME Exams

The federal government, through the minister of education has ordered universities in the country to stop organizing post Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examinations (UTME) for candidates seeking admission into higher institutions of learning.

The Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu, made this known in Abuja at the 2016 Combined Policy Meeting on Admissions to Universities, Polytechnics and other higher institutions in Nigeria on Thursday.

Adamu, expressed utmost confidence in the examination conducted by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), adding that there was no need for other examination to be conducted by universities after JAMB.

In his own words:
 “As far as I am concerned the nation has confidence in what JAMB is doing. The universities should not be holding another examination and if the universities have any complain against JAMB let them bring it and then we address it. If JAMB is qualified enough to conduct tests and they have conducted test then there will be no need to conduct another test for students to gain admisson."

In another news, the Joint Admission And Matriculation Board has fixed the cut – off mark for admission for 2016 at 180.

This was revealed by Jamb registrar, professor Dibu OjerindeOjerinde after a long debate with delegates from various institutions, he added that the 180 benchmark, applies to all universities and higher institutions in the country, including polytechnics, colleges of education, and others.

He said: “180 is a given, no institution will go below 180 this year, And some universities can go above it, I know University of Ife will not go below 200 and University of Lagos will not go below 200 and also UI. All these ones stand but 180 as bench mark for others. This year we have more than enough candidates, we have over 1.5 million candidates so we will get enough candidates to take in all the schools if they are serious. Re-distribution is already ongoing, because it is embedded in the registration procedure.”