JAMB Pass Mark: A Leeway For Complacency

I received the news about the decision of the Joint Admission And Matriculation Board (JAMB) to reduce the cut-off mark for candidates seeking admission into Nigerian Universities for degree programmes in the 2015/2016 academic session from 200 to 180 out of a possible 400 marks with some measure of puzzlement and amazement. I tried to find out what could have informed such a decision but could not really get any plausible explanation from all the news I read or heard. What is certain is that from October this year or thereabout when the next academic session would commence, schools are required to implement the new rule with regard to the admission of students. One can only assume that the officials of JAMB were convinced that they were taking the right step to help majority of University hopefuls whose hopes are dashed perennially having failed to make the previous pass mark of 200. I unequivocally disagree with this point of view. In fact I believe the education sector has just suffered a setback.