NUT Urges For Increment of JAMB Cut-off Mark for Colleges of Education

The Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) has decried the setting of the Joint Admission Matriculation Board (JAMB) cut-off mark for students seeking admission into Colleges of Education at 150, saying it is demeaning and lowers the professional status of teachers in the country.

In a statement by the NUT Secretary-General, Obong Obong on Tuesday, he said that the policy is a great disservice to the education sector as it placed the best brains and students of distinction in other courses while those with lower grades were pushed into teaching.

The association called for an immediate reversal of the policy, stressing that government must henceforth ensure that only brilliant students are admitted for training as teachers in all educational institutions in the county.

The statement also noted that Nigeria still have in abundance very brilliant and effective teachers in service who should nurture the next generation of teachers for effective service delivery.

This, the NUT added, was the reason it had been calling for the raising of the retirement age of teachers in primary and secondary schools to 65 years in order to tap maximally from “their fountain of knowledge.”