Why JAMB reduces its cut off mark

Posted by Felix Okoli on Monday July 14, 2014 at 9:49:12:

Every Student who wants to enter any of the Higher Institution in Nigeria has to sit for, and pass the JAMB exam. The JAMB exam that is known as UTME is conducted by the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board, and the all Candidates are expected to sit for 4 subjects; English Language being a mandatory subject and three other subjects relating to the course the Candidate wants to study in the Higher Institution. The average cut off mark or average pass mark for JAMB exam is 200, but for the past few years, JAMB has reduced the admission cut off marks to 180 for State Universities and Polytechnics, 160 for Colleges of Education, in this article, I will mention some of the reasons why JAMB decided to reduce its admission cut off mark.

1. To allow More Students to Enter the Higher Institutions: A high cut off mark from JAMB will be a turnoff or discouragement to Students who wish to attend Higher Institution but are average students, so keeping the admission cut off mark low will encourage these students to achieve their dreams of attending a higher Institution.

2. To Accommodate More Students: unlike some years back when Nigerian students were not so eager to attend higher institution, the number of students that sit for JAMB exam every year are multiplying in their numbers, so JAMB exam Board has opted to reduce the cut off marks to allow more students to gain admission into Higher Institutions and produce more graduates.

3. To remedy for mass failure: At times when students don’t generally do well in the admission exams, they are less likely to gain an admission given the initial cut off marks set. When this happens, JAMB might reduce the cut off mark in order to reduce the effects of the mass failure.