By George Samuel
The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, JAMB, has set the benchmark for admission into tertiary institutions for the 2020/21 school session.
The cut off points ranged from 100 and above for Colleges of Education, 120 and above for Polytechnics and 160 and above for universities.
The Registrar, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, disclosed this during JAMB’s policy virtual meeting in Abuja, yesterday.
This came as the Federal Government also, yesterday, listed conditions for schools to reopen in the country.
Oloyede also disclosed that a total of 612,557 candidates were offered admission in the 2019/20 session, with about 510,957 not able to secure admission during the same period.
“Of the 1,157,977 candidates who sat for the UTME in 2019, about 612,557 were admitted,” he said in his opening address on the occasion.
Oloyede noted that candidates waiting for their results would only be considered when they upload their results on the Board’s website.
In his remarks, Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu, directed JAMB and tertiary institutions to proceed with the conduct of 2020/2021 admissions.
Adamu was represented by the Minister of State for Education, Mr Emeka Nwajiuba.
Admission processes are expected to commence in August based on the guidelines released by JAMB.
The minister urged JAMB and tertiary institutions to consider candidates with previous years’ Senior School Certificate Examination and other qualifying results while screening candidates for admission.
He said government would make arrangement to accommodate applicants who would be taking the Senior Secondary School Certificate Examinations to be conducted by the West African Examinations Council, WAEC; National Examinations Council, NECO, among others, when the opportunity to do so was worked out
Using the occasion to again react to calls by some people and groups for schools across the country to be reopened, the minister listed some conditions that must be met by each school.
He said: “All institutions must have hand-washing facilities; body temperature checks; body disinfectants at all entering points to their major facilities, including the gates, hostels, classes, offices, etc
“Others are, the whole premises of each institution must be decontaminated and all efforts must be geared toward maintenance of the highest level of hygiene and ensure social and physical distancing in class sizes and meeting spaces.”
He warned against reopening any school without the approval of the Federal Government.
Recall that on March 19, 2020, a circular from the Federal Ministry of Education granted an approval for the closure of all school for a period of one month commencing from Monday, March 23, 2020 to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. Each state in Nigeria has, however, contextualised this circular.