The Federal Government has reduced the cut-off marks for gaining admission into Federal Polytechnics and Colleges of Education for the 2013/2014 academic session, the Minister of Education, Prof Ruqayat Ruf’ai has said.

Speaking at the end of a policy meeting with administrators of tertiary institutions in Abuja, yesterday, the minister announced 150 as cut-off mark for students seeking admission into polytechnics and colleges of education.

For universities, the cut-off point is 180.

Justifying the reduction, Prof Ruf’ai said it was aimed at encouraging students to seek admission into polytechnics and colleges of education.

The policy meeting called to determine the cut-off marks was attended by the Vice Chancellors, Registrars and Administrators of Universities, Polytechnics and Colleges of Education as well as the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board.

The Tide gathered that outcome of the examination for entry into Nigerian universities for the 2012/2013 academic session is abysmal, at least so shows the result released by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board.

Out of the 1,503,931 candidates that sat for the examination, only about 72,400 scored 200 and above out of the 400 marks available.

Most Nigerian universities peg the cut off for their courses at 200.

The results, announced last Friday in Abuja by the Registrar of JAMB, Prof. Dibu Ojerinde, showed that only three candidates scored over 300 marks in the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination.

Nine hundred and one candidates were said to have scored above 270 marks while 72,243 had 250 marks.

Only 151 candidates scored between 200 and 249 marks.

Though the analysis showed that 1,048,314 candidates passed the examination, this is based on the premise that the universities will, generally, accept 180 as the cut off mark for admission.

However, most universities demand a score of over 250 for their key courses in the sciences and law.

About 366,330 candidates scored belowe 169, while 374,920 candidates scored between 170 and 199.

On malpractices, Rivers State, like it happened in the National Examinations Council results for the senior school certificate examination released on Thursday, topped the list of states that erred.

Out of the 1,503,931 candidates that sat for the examination, the results of 1,384,644 were released while 5,161 were declared invalid.

Results from 24 centres in Rivers State were withheld.

Lagos came second in this category with the results from 11 centres withheld.

Imo, Benue, Cross River, Delta and Nasarawa States also had plaques in this category, with the results of six, three, two, two and one centres seized.

On the number of candidates that sat for the examination and the schools they applied to, Ojerinde said Imo State had the highest number of applicants, which he put at 123,865.

Delta, Anambra, Osun, Oyo and Ogun States followed with 88,876, 84,204, 73,935, 71,272 and 71,173.

The lowest enrolment came from Jigawa, Kebbi, Yobe, Zamfara, Sokoto and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja that had 11,529, 7,364, 6,389, 5,713, 5,664 and 3,380.

There were 833,082 male candidates and 660,522 female candidates that sat for the examination.

The University of Lagos recorded the highest number of requests for admission with 83,865 candidates.

Others are the Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, 82,148; University of Benin, 80,048; University of Nigeria, Nsukka, 79, 398, University of Ilorin, 76,276; Obafemi Awolowo University, 64,702; Ahmadu Bello University, 56,708; University of Port Harcourt, 48,439; University of Uyo, 44,397; Imo State University, 43,353; and University of Ibadan, 40,011.