The Nigerian House Of Rep Orders Federal Universties To Reduce POST-UTME Cut-Off To 180

Following the mass failure recorded in the 2013 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examinations, the House Of Representatives has commanded all federal universities to follow JAMB’s directive and reduce the cut-off marks to 180.
The House raised the alarms that many schools had not complied with the order, and asked the Federal Government to call defaulting universities to the book.

To this end, the House equally mandated the House Committee on Education to have an interface with both the Ministry of Education and the authorities of federal universities and allied institutions, with regards to ensuring strict adherence to government policy on education, especially when it is not in conflict with the provisions of Nigeria’s Constitution.
The House resolution was sequel to a motion moved by Honourable Victor Ogene, entitled “Blatant disregard of government’s directive on JAMB cut-off mark for federal universities: Need to call defaulting universities to order.”
According to him, “the statute setting up federal universities in Nigeria confers the powers and responsibilities of the visitor, financier and regulator on the Federal Government, represented by the president,” stressing that “such executive regulatory powers on federal tertiary education ( that are consistent with the laws of the land) are delegated to appropriate agents of the government. In this instance, the Federal Minister of Education, to execute on behalf of the President.”
He expressed worry that the current admission requirements by several Nigerian universities, especially the federal universities, founded and funded by the Federal Government, as published widely in the media, were in total disregard of this directive.
Speaking further, he said “while 180 marks was approved by government, eligibility for post-UTME entrance examination  into federal universities, such as the Federal University of Technology, Akure (FUTA), University of Lagos (UNILAG), University of Benin (UNIBEN), Obafemi Awolowo University ( OAU), University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN), are pegged at 200 and above, the Federal University of Technology, Minna and Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka (UNIZIK), put theirs at 190 and 200 for science courses, respectively.”
To this end, he said “unless the government guideline of 180 marks for universities and 150 for polytechnics and colleges of education are strictly adhered to by these federal institutions, many Nigerian youths, who scored less than 200 marks, but met the government approved cut-off marks of 180 and 150 respectively, will be denied possible admission into their chosen tertiary institutions, as a result of this blatant disregard of the authority and directive of the central government.”
When the motion was put to vote by the Deputy Speaker, Honourable Emeka Ihedioha, who presided over the session, it was unanimously supported by members.