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*Says one million students admitted illegally
The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has fixed cut-off marks for admissions into tertiary institutions.
This is just as the Board revealed that over one million students were admitted illegally by some tertiary institutions in the country between 2017 and 2020.
JAMB Registrar, Prof Is-haq Oloyede, stated this yesterday in Abuja at the 2024 policy meeting on education.
The policy meeting sets the tone for admissions into tertiary institutions.
Oloyede said the board had been able to regularise 600,000 of the numbers admitted illegally.
He said a lot of the students with illegal admissions did not have the basic qualifications to be admitted into the courses they registered to study.
The JAMB boss stated: "The Federal Ministry of Education gave waiver for the illegal admission conducted between 2017 and 2020. Some institutions still indulge in the act of illegal admission.
"Over one million students were admitted illegally. We registered about 600,000 of them because a lot of them don't have the basic qualifications."
He said the board and stakeholders approved the minimum cut-off marks for 2024 admissions into the nation's tertiary institutions.
The benchmark of 140 for universities and 100 for polytechnics and colleges of education was arrived at in Abuja at the yearly policy meeting on admissions into tertiary institutions.
The meeting, declared open by the Minister of Education, Prof Tahir Mamman, took the decision following recommendations by the heads of institutions.
Oloyede said the minimum benchmark is not a single-suit-fits-all for all institutions, stressing that though the meeting decides the minimum point, "institutions have the liberty to raise their individual minimum points higher than the agreed benchmark".
The development comes as the Federal Government has bowed to pressure and admitted students of 16 years and above into tertiary institutions for the 2024 admission.
It, however, insisted that from the 2025 admission exercise, only students above 18 years would be admitted into tertiary institutions.
