Professor Tahir Mamman, Minister of Education, has made a U-turn in his earlier statement, where he directed the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) to admit only candidates who have attained 18 years in tertiary institutions.
Mamman announced on Thursday, in an ongoing policy meeting organised by JAMB in Abuja, that only applicants who were 18 years and above were eligible for admission.
Stakeholders in the meeting objected to his statement, pointing out that it was nonsensical for a 16-year-old student to pass WAEC and JAMB and yet receive a denial of entry.
Reacting to that, the minister later accepted the suggestions of the stakeholders that from 16 years and above should be eligible for this year’s admission, while the law would apply next year.
JAMB cut-off mark
Meanwhile, 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, respectively.
The 2024 annual policy meeting on admissions, which took place at the Body Benchers Headquarters in Abuja, on Thursday determined the National Minimum Tolerable UTME Score (NTMUS), also known as the cut-off mark, for 2024 admission into tertiary institutions.
The successful completion of the 2024 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) prompted the holding of the meeting. This year’s UTME saw a total of 1,989,668 registered candidates.
Out of the 1,989,668 registered candidates, 80,810 were absent, while a total of 1,904,189 sat for the UTME within six days of the examination.
Professor Tahir Mamman, the Minister of Education, chaired the policy meeting and made decisions based on recommendations from the heads of institutions.
JAMB Registrar Ishaq Oloyede, who announced the cutoff marks, explained that individual institutions were free to raise their minimum benchmark approved at the policy meeting but could not go below what was approved for various institutions.
