BY ALO 360 Editorial Board
At the 2026 admission policy meeting organised by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) in Abuja on Monday, Tunji Alausa, minister of education, announced the newly approved cut-off marks for admission into tertiary institutions. Since then, the decision has generated widespread criticism — and rightly so.
According to the new policy, universities can now admit candidates with a minimum score of 150, colleges of nursing will also admit from 150, while polytechnics can admit students who score as low as 100 out of the maximum 400 marks obtainable in the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME). In practical terms, a student who scored just 25 percent can now gain admission into a polytechnic, while 37.5 percent is enough to qualify for university admission.
This should alarm any country genuinely interested in building a competitive knowledge economy.
Nigeria constantly speaks about innovation, industrialisation, digital transformation and artificial intelligence, yet our policies continue to weaken the very foundation upon which those ambitions depend: education. No serious country lowers academic standards this drastically and still expects excellence in return.
AN ACCESS SOLUTION?
The federal government argues that the policy is aimed at expanding access to higher education. On the surface, that may sound compassionate and progressive. But access without quality is not reform; it is merely statistical expansion. A system that prioritises enrolment figures over competence ultimately produces graduates who are poorly prepared for the demands of the modern world.
The issue becomes even more troubling when placed beside another major announcement made by the minister. From next year, candidates seeking admission into Nigeria Certificate in Education (NCE) programmes, as well as agriculture and non-engineering courses, will no longer be required to sit for UTME. Their Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination (SSCE) results will now suffice for admission.
That decision raises even deeper concerns.
Nigeria’s SSCE system, particularly WAEC, has long been plagued by examination malpractice. In many schools, so-called “miracle centres” openly compromise the integrity of examinations. Answers are supplied to students, invigilators are bribed to look away, and candidates often leave examination halls with grades that do not reflect their actual academic ability. It is an uncomfortable truth, but it is a truth nonetheless.
UTME REMAINS BEST MEASURE OF ABILITY
For all its imperfections, UTME remains one of the few relatively credible large-scale examinations in the country because it is computer-based and far more difficult to manipulate. It provides a more objective measure of a student’s preparedness for tertiary education. Removing that layer of assessment for NCE and agriculture applicants weakens the quality control mechanism even further.
The minister explained that the policy would encourage more enrolment into colleges of education and agriculture-related programmes, especially to bridge shortages in teachers and agricultural professionals. But that argument fails to confront the real problem.
Graduates are not avoiding teaching because they dislike education. They are avoiding teaching because the profession is poorly remunerated and socially neglected. If Nigeria genuinely wants more qualified teachers, the solution is straightforward: pay teachers better, improve working conditions, and restore dignity to the profession. Attractive salaries and proper welfare would naturally draw more talented young people into education.
Instead, what the government appears to be doing is lowering the entry bar to fill classrooms.
That is dangerous, particularly because NCE holders form the backbone of Nigeria’s basic education system. They teach at the foundational level where literacy, comprehension and critical thinking are first developed. If the country deliberately weakens the academic quality of those who will educate children at that crucial stage, then the consequences will reverberate across the entire education system for decades.
A weak foundation cannot produce a strong structure.
BUILDING SOMETHING ON NOTHING
Alausa also argued that NCE students who later meet university requirements can proceed to universities from 300 level under the dual mandate framework. But that defence misses the point. Students admitted with severely weakened standards do not suddenly transform academically after admission. The quality deficit remains. Lowering the standard at entry level inevitably affects outcomes later.
This is why the government’s reasoning appears short-sighted. Nigeria’s education crisis is fundamentally a capacity problem, not merely an access problem.
Universities already struggle with overcrowded lecture halls, inadequate laboratories, insufficient hostels, outdated equipment and overworked lecturers. Lowering cut-off marks does not solve those structural deficiencies. It only increases the pressure on already stretched institutions.
Take the University of Lagos as an example. Every year, more than 50,000 candidates apply to the institution, yet only about 8,000 to 10,000 eventually secure admission. The problem is not that qualified students do not exist; the problem is that the institution lacks the infrastructure and resources to absorb more candidates without compromising quality.
That is where government intervention should focus — funding, expansion, infrastructure, research support and lecturer welfare — not the continuous lowering of standards.
Unfortunately, this trend did not begin today. Last year, the government removed mathematics as an SSCE requirement for arts and humanities students despite widespread concerns about the long-term effect on analytical reasoning and cognitive development. Once again, the criticism was ignored.
Public policy must be evidence-based, not politically convenient. Nigeria cannot continue to treat symptoms while ignoring the disease itself. Lowering standards may create the illusion of inclusion, but it does not create excellence.
FG MUST RECONSIDER THIS POLICY
The federal government should reconsider and reverse this policy before it further damages the integrity of tertiary education in Nigeria. Universities, meanwhile, should resist the temptation to reduce their own internal standards simply because the national benchmark has been lowered. Institutions still retain the power to set higher admission thresholds, and many should continue to insist on at least 200 as the minimum score for admission.
A nation cannot lower its way to global competitiveness. If Nigeria truly wants to compete in an increasingly knowledge-driven world, then academic excellence must remain non-negotiable.
