This year, students seeking admission into Nigerian universities, will be judged based on their WASSCE results and Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) scores.
The Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu, abolished post-UTME as a means of admitting candidates into tertiary institutions in 2016.
Ever since then, Universities will be required to admit students by screening and awarding marks to their WASSCE results and JAMB scores.
The breakdown shows that when a candidate submits his/her O’Level result for screening, five O’Level subjects relating to his proposed programme of study will be examined.
Marks will then be awarded based on what he scored in WASSCE.
Hence, A1 is awarded 8%, B2-7%, B3-6%, C4-5%, C5-4% and C6-3%. Total marks for anyone with five A1s is 40 per cent. What this means is that if a candidate has five ‘A1s’, he has gotten a maximum 40 per cent. A student with five B2s, would score 35 per cent. Five B3s, 30 per cent; five C4s, gets 25 per cent; five C5s, 20 per cent and five C6s would score just 15 per cent.
Higher institutions have also graded UTME’s scores into percentages. If a UTME candidate has 180 to 189, he is assumed to have scored 10 per cent. If he scored between 190 and 199, he gets 20 per cent. For those who scored between 200 and 209, they have 30 per cent while someone who scored between 210 and 219 gets 40 per cent. Those who scored between 220 and 229, earn 50 per cent and a student with 230 and above gets the maximum 60 per cent.
All these imply that a candidate with five A1s in WASSCE who also scored 230 and above in UTME is certain to be admitted because he has 40 per cent in WASSCE and 60 per cent in UTME.