The governor of Kaduna State, Dr Nasir el-Rufai has called on the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) to stop allocating lower cutoff mark tos northern candidates writing the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) saying such preferential treatment makes them indolent.
The governor stated this yesterday while featuring as a guest on Channels Television’s ‘Sunrise Daily’ breakfast programme
Recall that hitherto, JAMB determined cutoff marks across the country but recently it cancelled general cutoff scores for admission into tertiary institutions for the 2021/2022 academic session and gave institutions the freedom to set their individual minimum benchmark for admission.
El-Rufai said students in the north should not be given lower cutoff marks but the same cutoff scores as their counterparts from other parts of the country so that they (northern students) could be competitive nationally and internationally.
“The north has always been behind in education; we’ve continuously been the disadvantaged region right from independence even though we’re given preferences, JAMB scores and all that. That has not helped; in fact, it has made our people lazy.
“Against this differential JAMB and FG (Federal Government) scores, I think people should be encouraged to work hard and compete and we are prepared to make our children in Kaduna State to be competitive, not only in the state but globally,” he said.
El-Rufai also said the current closure of schools in the state was the major goal of bandits and terrorists oppressing the state but he vowed that they will not succeed.
He also said that for security reasons, the state government had moved students from the rural areas where their safety could not be guaranteed to the urban centers.
The governor also said the gradual reopening of schools would commence as soon as massive security operations are concluded.
“The schools are closed now because on the advice of security agencies; they need a couple of months to undertake massive security operations. They are doing that. We are confident that from the next two weeks, we would start the gradual reopening of schools.
“We have moved many of our students in rural areas that we are not sure we can protect to urban schools thereby increasing the congestion in urban schools that we can protect.
“The continuous closure of schools is exactly what bandits and Boko Haram want and we are not going to let them win. But we must put the safety of our children and teachers first,” he added.
The governor also spoke on investment in the state saying Kaduna attracted over $3bn foreign and local investments in the last two years despite the prevailing activities of bandits.
“In the last two years, we’ve attracted more than $2bn, close to $3bn of foreign and domestic investments into the state.
“We’ve also engaged in massive infrastructure across the state, everywhere,” he said.
He said security forces were overwhelmed by the activities of bandits hence the need to train hundreds of vigilantes who will bear arms and confront the marauders who operate from the forests in the state.
He also stated that when banditry started in the state some years back, “it was essentially a rural phenomenon and that has not affected our ability to attract investments in the state.”
“This banditry is essentially a rural phenomenon but it has moved to the urban areas,” the governor added.
