JAMB cut off: Universities should be autonomous

A former Minister of Education, Oby Ezekwesili has said universities should be allowed to screen their candidates while the role of Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) should be regulatory.

She was responding to a question on the 120 cut off marks set by JAMB during a teen career conference held in Abuja at the weekend.

She said people should stop attacking JAMB for the cut off mark adding that education problem in the country is systemic.

“When I see society screaming about the cut off mark, I say you are wasting tears on symptoms rather than the root of the problem. We have to go to the early stage of education which ultimately determines the readiness of our children for university education,” she said.

She said universities should be granted autonomy in determining the kind of students that they want in their universities and such process should be without mediocrity.

“Do it in a way that you do not intensify mediocrity and ensure that the quality of the product of each university is traced by society and rewarded according to their accomplishments,” she said.

“If we don’t reform education in this country the 65 per cent of the children in public schools systems that are failing are usually the children of the poor. What it means is double jeopardy,” she said.

“We are joking with education in this country and it is a disaster,” she said. She said the situation would remain the same until the political class considers education instead of crude oil.