Okojie in trouble again as teachers reject 'derogatory' policy

Another controversy has hit the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) barely a week after its decision to redistribute candidates for the 2015 Post-UTME backfired.

The Nigeria Union of Teachers condemned the Board for its policy over admission cut off marks.

JAMB had in mid-July announced 180 as the national cut-off marks for students seeking admission into Universities and 150 for Polytechnics and Colleges of Education.

But the General Secretary of the NUT, Obong Obong, says the policy is discriminatory and demeaning.

“[The cut-off mark policy is aimed] at demeaning and lowering the professional status of teachers with its concomitant negative effect on the attainment of quality education in the country," Obong said.

According to the union boss, setting the admission bar for CoEs and polytechnics has negative implications for the education system.

“It is of great disservice to the education sector where the best brains and students of distinction are placed in other courses while those with lower grades are pushed into teaching," he added.

“If this is allowed to stand, government should take full responsibility for the resultant shortcomings that may be observed in our educational institutions in future from those teachers."

Obong called for an immediate reversal of the decision because sound educational delivery cannot be attained when admission standard for student teachers are lowered.

He said government must make effort to ensure that quality of education is allowed to decline.

Last week, JAMB Registrar, Professor Dibu Ojerinde, was forced to rescind the Board's decision on reassigning candidates for the Post-UTME examination after it proved unpopular.