By Felix Khanoba
The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) is to begin admission of new students into universities and other tertiary education institutions in the country for the 2020/2021 academic session in August 2020.
Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu, gave the green light on the commencement of admission for the new academic session to JAMB during a Policy Meeting on Admission which took place in Abuja.
Represented by the Minister of State for Education, Hon. Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba, Adamu said JAMB and tertiary institutions would kick-start the admission process with candidates that have their Senior School Certificate Examination (SSCE) results ready.
On the thousands of candidates that sat for this year’s Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) but have been unable to sit for May/June SSCE as a result of closure of schools occasioned by COVID-19, the minister said government would put in place arrangements that will accommodate such awaiting results applicants.
His words: “As major stakeholders, we must jointly come up with reactions that would realign our programmes to these new realities.
“While these reactions are being fine-tuned to check their capacities and capabilities to withstand the new reality, JAMB and tertiary institutions could take advantage of the current situation and consider candidates with previous years Senior School Certificate Examination and other qualifying results, to proceed on with the admission process.
“Whatever arrangement that the country comes up with in the long run, will surely accommodate those who will be taking the examination when the opportunity to do so is worked out.”
Also speaking at the event which attracted heads of tertiary education institutions and other stakeholders, who joined the Policy Meeting through the Zoom application, JAMB’s Registrar, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede said 612,557 candidates were offered admission in 2019/2020 academic session while 510,957 admission spaces were unused.
The AUTHORITY reports that the high point of the meeting was the fixing of the minimum score of 160 in UTME as a cut-off mark for candidates seeking admission into university , 120 for polytechnics and colleges of education while that of innovative institutions was pegged at 100 and above.
