By Ebele Orakpo, Amaka Abayomi & DAYO ADESULU

Everybody is a genius. But, if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it’ll spend its whole life believing that it is stupid  – Albert Einstein.

Perhaps this informed the glaring disparity in cut-off marks in the National Common Entrance Examination for different states. The purpose of the exam is to select the best candidates from every state of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) for admission into federal unity colleges which aim is to foster unity amongst Nigerian children.

However, some people have argued that the practice is unfair and counter-productive and does not help the education sector in any way. In this report, Vanguard Learning spoke with stakeholders in the education sector.

From the 2013 National Common Entrance Examinations cut-off marks made available to Vanguard, while Anambra State was assigned a cut-off of 139, Imo 138, Lagos 133, and Delta 131; educationally-disadvantaged states like Taraba had 3 for males and 11 for females, Sokoto 9 for males and 13 for females; and Zamfara 4 for males and 2 for females.

When contacted,the Public Relations Officer, National Examination Council (NECO), Mr Benedict Uzor said the quota system for entrance into unity schools is the affair of Federal Ministry of Education and principals of unity schools.  “NECO does not admit students into unity schools but conducts entrance examination for primary school pupils on behalf of the Federal Government,” he said.

Cross section of candidates during an exam

He explained that NECO is also responsible for the marking of the  scripts which is done within three days after the examination, and the scripts and marks are returned to the ministry.”

According to Uzor, it will be very difficult for NECO to know the decision of the Education Ministry on quota system of admitting students in each state of the federation. “Quota system is the responsibility of Ministry of Education and not NECO, all we do is to score students based on their performances.”

Also contacted was Mr Aliyu Othman, Special Assistant to the Minister of  Education on Media, Professor Ruqayyatu Rufa’i, who stated that he was unaware of the quota system, saying: “I am hearing this for the first time.”

Education ministry debunks operating quota system
Speaking on behalf of the Minister of State for Education, the Media  Special Assistant, Mr Simeon Awakaubu debunked claims that the Federal Ministry of Education operates quota system in admitting students into unity schools, adding that what the ministry does is to consider the more disadvantaged states. He explained that another factor in granting admission is catchment area, noting, this is to favour them as it is being done in the university system.

He, however, hinted that in the next two weeks, principals of the 104 federal colleges and the Federal Ministry of Education will meet to discuss the admission process.

In his reaction,Mr. Elnathan John, an Abuja-based lawyer/writer said: “While it is important to have a fair and equitable process, it is also important to take note of certain disparities especially in background. The issue of federal character is a very thorny issue because while one would like to see equity, sometimes you end up with unfair results which exclude certain people for no fault of theirs. Sometimes the real issue for pupils from so-called educationally disadvantaged states is the language barrier.”

*Education minister

Otunba Dele Olapeju, Principal, Kings College, Lagos noted that if merit alone was employed, the unity schools would not achieve federal character. He, however, pointed out that the scores for each state were generated from demand, available data from the states and number of students each state can accommodate.

Citing an example with Anambra State, he said in the 2012 examination, “out of 6,000 candidates that made the national cut-off, Anambra State had the lion’s share. However, if all Anambra candidates are admitted, there will be no unity colleges.”

John identified low investment in education in the north as an issue. He said: “Due to very low investment in education in the north, the children are clearly more disadvantaged educationally than those from the south so sometimes you find that if you want to apply strict rules across the board, you may end up excluding people from certain parts of the country so I think the spirit of the rule is so that we can have a representation from all parts of the country because it may be unfair if you exclude certain people.”

For Mr. Otobong Ebe, Administrator of Kaduna-based Anchor Schools, the disparity in cut-off marks does more harm than good because “at the end of the day, both sides have to compete in the same labour market but one thing I have learnt from experience is that some of those whom the lower cut-off mark is meant for, ignore it and aim higher and end up doing even better than students with high cut-off marks.”

This was corroborated by Olapeju who said that low cut-off mark does not mean that the pupils in that state “don’t have to sit for the examination nor pass it. What it means is that such states have more spaces for students so there is no need to set a limit.”

To encourage disadvantaged areas
John thinks that the whole idea is to encourage people from certain areas to go to school. “When I was studying Law at the university, in my entire class, there were only four people from Zamfara State while some states in the East had 100 – 200 students. That is just a clear reflection of the educational situation in the country so I think the whole idea is to encourage people from certain areas to go to school,” he said.

Despite the drawbacks, John believes that there is a positive aspect to the issue. He said: “Looking at the positive aspect, may be when these students are put in the same class, it’s like dropping someone who cannot swim in the deep side of the ocean, he probably will struggle and learn to swim. You find out that in the end, some of these students really try and pick up because of competition. Look at it this way, if we say we want equality, would it be better for us to have no student from Zamfara, Kebbi and Yobe states? Will that be a more equitable process? So for me, it’s not that the system is a proper system but it is choosing between two evils.”

Need to set right standard
Ebe said there was need to set the right standard because “we can’t just keep saying that the standard of education is falling and student enrolment is low, we need to do something to raise the standard until everybody is on equal footing.”

“I think in the long run, our dream is that we have a Nigeria where the student from Zamfara is not less educationally advantaged than the student from Lagos so that we have some sort of equalisation of standards. This is where the governors really have a lot of work to do so that they bring their states up to par and be able to compete nationally. Right now, the disparities are huge and unacceptable,” said John.

NATIONAL EXAMINATIONS COUNCIL (NECO)

2013 National Common Entrance Examinations (NCEE)
Table 3: Cut-Off Marks Based on State/Locality

SN      STATE          MALE                FEMALE
1         ABIA               130                   130
2       ADAMAWA    62                      62
3      AKWA IBOM    123                 123
4      ANAMBRA       139                  139
5    BAUCHI                35                    35
6    BENUE                111                    111
7    BORNO                45                      45
8    CROSS RIVER     97                    97
9    DELTA                   131                   131
10    EDO                     127                    127
11    ENUGU                134                   134
12    IMO                       138                  138
13    JIGAWA               44                    44
14    KADUNA               91                   91
15    KANO                      67                   67
16    KATSINA              60                 60
17    KEBBI                    9                     20
18    KOGI                   119                     119
19    KWARA               123                  123
20    LAGOS                 133                 133
21    NIGER                   93                   93
22    OGUN                  131                  131
23    ONDO                   126               126
24    OSUN                   127               127
25    OYO                      127              127
26    PLATEAU              90              90
27    RIVER                 118               118
28    SOKOTO                 9                  13
29    TARABA                 3                 11
30    YOBE                       2                  27
31    FCT                          90               90
32    BAYELSA             72               72
33    EBONYI                112             112
34    EKITI                    119               119
35    GOMBE                  58               58
36    NASARAWA          75             75
37    ZAMFARA              4                2