By Friday Omosola & Opeyemi Ologun

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Educationists have described the decision of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) to peg the cutoff mark of universities at 140 for 2022/23 admission across the country as evidence of deteriorating educational system in Nigeria.

They also said it has shown that youths in the country are losing interest in education due to factors such as incessant strike, inadequate funding and societal adoration of money over academic success.

Speaking with The Hope,  Professor Akinmoladun Afolabi of the Federal University of Technology, Akure (FUTA) said the drastic decline in students’ JAMB scores was a result of ineffective preparation and divided attention caused by the current economic downturn in the nation.

“Some students have to fend for themselves and for their parents, resulting in them having less time to study and concentrate which will eventually lead to poor performance on their parts.”

Akinmoladun also said that looking at it from other aspects, a student’s poor performance could be a result of lack of motivation.

“Looking at the attitude of the government and the society in general to the ongoing strike, it can demotivate students from studying and set their vision on how to make money.”

“And the society itself does not appreciate education again, it now appreciates people who make money through crooked means,” he said.

“Imagine, the last set of students who took JAMB last year are still at home now, this set will also be joining, so all these are discouragements to the students.”

Also speaking, a lecturer at Ekiti State University(EKSU), Benson Ojedayo maintained that reducing the cut-off mark would not have any positive impact but would only encourage prospective JAMBites to study less.

“But I still believe that it is not going to make much of an impact, which is because the cut-off mark being 140 does not mean that everyone that has 140 would get into the university.”

“140 may be shortlisted, if more than hundred students with the said mark apply to the same university for the same course that will only take in fifty students, you will find out that they will have to list according to their scores,”  Ojedayo explained

Another lecturer, Mr Joshua Hassan from the Federal University of Oye Ekiti (FUOYE) stated that the decision would affect the education and economic sectors in the country as low-quality graduates would be produced.

“Some students work to feed themselves and this will cause a sharp decline in their examination scores.

“JAMB took the statistics of scores and discovered that with the poor performance of students this year, if they do not reduce the cut-off, a lot of students would not be admitted.”