The management of the University of Ibadan, and its academic union, Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU have condemned and rejected the new cut-off marks for universities admission for 2017/2018 academic calendar.
This position was contained in a statement titled, “On the Recently Announced cut off Marks of 120 for University Admission: our position in UI”, released from the Office of the Vice Chancellor of the institution, Professor Abel Idowu Olayinka.
The statement declared, “The Management of the University of Ibadan wishes to inform the public about the recently announced cut off marks of 120 for University Admission that UI will not lower her standards” , adding, “the Nigeria’s premier university still maintains her position in academic excellence and standards in order to continue to aspire towards becoming a world-class university”.
It should worry us as patriots that candidates who scored just 30 percent in UTME can be admitted into some of our universities. Yet, we complain of poor quality of our graduates. You can hardly build something on nothing. The consolation here is that since JAMB started conducting this qualifying exam in 1978, UI has never admitted any candidate who scored less than 200 marks out of the maximum 400 marks.
Even for polytechnic, 100 marks is 25 percent. It is sad. And that is where we are in Nigeria. They want to destroy public education at all cost. This is not setting standard for education in Nigeria. It is purely lowering standards and digging grave for the future. This is why ASUU is currently on the struggle to influence the government to do the needful for education in Nigeria.