The decision by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board to approve 150 as the minimum UTME score for university admissions in the 2026 academic session has sparked widespread criticism online, with many Nigerians arguing that the country’s education standards are being watered down.
The benchmark was adopted during JAMB’s annual policy meeting in Abuja, where heads of tertiary institutions agreed that universities and colleges of nursing would use 150 as the minimum admissible score, while polytechnics and colleges of education would retain 100 as their benchmark.
Although institutions are still permitted to set higher cut-off marks, the announcement triggered intense debate on X, formerly Twitter, with many users expressing concern over what they described as a steady decline in academic standards.
One X user, AfricanWisdomHub, criticised the move, suggesting that lowering entry requirements would not solve deeper issues in the education sector.
“Lowering the gate does not automatically strengthen the village,” the user wrote, adding that expanding access without improving quality would only worsen existing problems.
Another user, @BEazebuy, accused the government of sacrificing quality education in a bid to accommodate mass failure.
“JAMB don officially drop the bar to rock bottom with 150 for university admission. We no longer dey build doctors, engineers or real thinkers. Just managing mass failure and packaging it as ‘access’,” the post read.
A similar concern was raised by Dr. Signor Onukwugha, who questioned why admission standards were being reduced at a time when students have greater access to technology and learning tools.
“Kai! Is our education going down the drain? The cutoff during our time was 180–200. How can they go as low as 150 at a time when it’s expected that schools produce brilliant students of this AI age,” he wrote.
Others, however, defended the decision, arguing that UTME scores alone should not determine a student’s academic potential, especially given complaints over examination pressure, technical glitches, and disparities in educational opportunities across the country.
During the same policy meeting, Minister of Education Tunji Alausa also announced that the federal government had retained 16 years as the minimum age for admission into tertiary institutions nationwide.
