Polytechnic Stakeholders Slam JAMB’s Discriminatory Admission Cut-Off Marks

Stakeholders across Nigeria’s technical education sector have expressed deep outrage over persistent inequalities in national tertiary admission policies, warning that the systemic marginalisation of polytechnics is actively strangling the country's industrial development. The sharp criticism was formalized in a detailed communiqué issued at the conclusion of the maiden International Conference of the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP), Federal Polytechnic, Ekiti State Chapter. Participants explicitly targeted the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) for its decision regarding the 2026 academic calendar, which set the minimum baseline for university admissions at an aggressive 150 points while pegging polytechnics and colleges of education significantly lower at a baseline of 100 points.

Signed by Conference Organising Committee Chairman Dr Peter Ajewole and Secretary Dr Ige Ayeni, the document argued that the arbitrary score disparity reinforces a false, damaging public perception that polytechnic education is an inferior, secondary choice compared to universities. This systemic stigma has triggered a massive talent drain, severely discouraging academically brilliant candidates from enrolling in technical institutions despite the equivalent, if not superior, real-world applicability of the vocational curriculum. The academic union warned that by continually treating polytechnics as second-class platforms, the regulatory frameworks are starving the nation of the essential technical and engineering manpower required to build sustainable local manufacturing ecosystems. To rescue the sector from ongoing decay, the conference fiercely urged the Federal Government to implement a uniform, merit-based admission cut-off policy across all tertiary institutions while substantially increasing funding structures to align with UNESCO’s recommended allocation of up to twenty percent of national budgets.