JAMB’s falling admission standards compound talent crisis

As the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) continues to lower the bar for entry, stakeholders warn that a combination of low admission benchmarks and chronic underfunding are responsible for the widening chasm between academic theory and workplace reality.

According to Proten International’s latest report on the gap between education and industry needs, nearly 60 percent of employers in Nigeria say graduates are not job-ready, underscoring a widening gap between academic training and industry expectations.

The report added that more than 55 percent of Nigerian graduates work in roles unrelated to their field of study, as it highlighted critical gaps in communication, technical, and digital skills.

Tosin Eniolorunda, chief executive officer at Moniepoint, recently complained that the company is struggling to fill about 500 job openings, citing a shortage of qualified talent in Nigeria.

Eniolorunda disclosed that despite a deliberate shift towards hiring locally, the firm has been unable to find candidates who meet its standards.

“We made a decision that we will no longer hire from any other place than Nigeria. If you go to Moniepoint’s career website, we have maybe 500 vacancies, and we are struggling to find people to fill those roles

“Not only could we not find people at the quality and the quantity we needed, but the few people that we found also were not up to the global standards that we need,” he said.

Since 2017, JAMB has been dangling the admission benchmarks into Nigeria’s tertiary institutions below 200 out of the maximum 400 marks.

In 2017, for the first time, JAMB set the minimum cut-off marks below 200. The board announced 120 benchmarks for universities, 110 for innovative enterprises, and 100 for polytechnics and colleges of education. Some universities roared that this was too low for them, and then set their cut-off point between 160 and 200.

In 2019, the cut-off points for universities and polytechnics were 140 and 100, respectively, while in 2020, the cut-off mark for universities was 160, polytechnics 120, and colleges of education 100.

In 2021, universities had a benchmark of 120, polytechnics and colleges of education 100, and in 2022, the cut-off mark was 140 for universities and 100 for polytechnics and colleges of education; while in 2023, the benchmark was 140 for universities and 100 for polytechnics and colleges of education.

In 2024, JAMB gave 150 benchmarks for universities, and 100 for polytechnics, and colleges of education; the same benchmark of 150 was adopted in 2025 and 2026 for universities, and 100 for polytechnics and colleges of education.

Stakeholders believe that the lowering of the cut-off marks for admission into universities and other higher institutions poses a threat to education in the country, as it reflects falling standards in the sector.

“Examinations are a process of assessing the amount of learning an individual has achieved over a period of time. In many cases, it determines if students are qualified to proceed to another stage of learning. When required marks to move from one level to another are reduced, it implies the bar is being lowered,” they say.

“For the university admission year 2022/2023, JAMB drew the cut-off marks below what was usually obtainable. It set the benchmark at 140 for the universities.

Busayo Aderonmu, a senior lecturer at Covenant University, Ota, in Ogun State, sees the lowering of the bar as a bad omen for the education system.

“If we look at the 150 cut-off mark, which is 37.5 percent of the total score on grade, it is F. A pass mark of E starts from 45 percent. This implies that we are devaluing the education standard by approving a 37.5 percent score for admission into tertiary institutions.

“This will water down our education, put more pressure on lecturers while trying to impart knowledge, and may also result in producing graduates that are not competent in handling economic issues because we may end up bringing down the pass mark for each course/subject when the students perform below expectation,” she said.

Sola Kayode, a civil servant believes that lowering the cut-off marks to 150, means that students with significant gaps in foundational knowledge are admitted.

Such students, he said, often struggle to cope with the rigour of university-level academic work, leading to higher dropout rates or poor academic performance.

“Students admitted with lower marks are less equipped for the workplace, negatively impacting the credibility of Nigerian degrees in the global job market,” he said.

Oluyemi Adeosun, described learning environments in Nigerian schools as unfriendly for academic success.

“Nigeria’s schools are physical spaces but often lack the physical tools for modern learning. Libraries are empty, laboratories are idle, and computer laboratories are nonexistent.

“In rural areas, students still learn under trees. The lack of enabling environments makes it hard for even the most motivated students to thrive,” he said.

Jessica Osuere, chief executive officer at RubiesHub Educational Services, speaking on the way forward, urged companies such as Moniepoint to drive education investments.

Many corporate organisations, such as Moniepoint invest heavily in entertainment, influencer culture, or publicity-driven sponsorships while contributing little visibly to education, research, innovation, or talent development.

“Supporting education through scholarships, internships, research grants, tech labs, mentorship programmes, or rewarding outstanding graduates would certainly give such criticisms greater moral weight and social credibility,” she said