The National Association of Nigerian Students has described the recent backward review of the cut-off marks for admission into tertiary institutions in Nigeria as “a gross misplacement of priority and exercise in futility.”

The organisation said that the reduction by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, from 180 for universities and 165 for polytechnics, now 120 and 100 respectively for the 2017 Unified Tertiary Matriculations Examination, would translate to a disastrous outcome in the future.

The President of NANS, Chinonso Obasi in a statement on Thursday, threatened that the decision would be resisted if JAMB refused to adhere to the status quo.

He said, “As critical stakeholders in the educational sector, NANS will vehemently resist the review and call on the government to maintain status quo and endeavour to conduct a comparative study and analysis of policies from other climes that support functional learning and production of young people that can compete with their peers globally.”

“Knowledge acquisition is a function of determination and hard work and so if over the years, students were able to work hard to meet cut off points, it doesn’t make any logical sense to now to lower the standard and insist that the inability of any student to meet the cut-off points is a function of outright indolence. It should not be encouraged.”

While insisting that Nigerian youth are intelligent and willing to learn, Obasi argued that because of the enabling environment provided by tertiary institutions abroad, Nigerian students who study overseas are known to study and come out with exemplary performance.