Northern Students Are Lazy Due To JAMB’s Preferential Cut-Off Marks – Governor El-Rufai

Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai says that Northern students have become lazy due to the “preferential scores” allotted to them by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB).

During a chat with Channels TV on Monday, Governor El-Rufai asked JAMB to make the cut-off mark scores of students from the north to be the same as their counterparts in the south.

He said the preferential scores that the JAMB gives northern students “have not helped” the region out of the educational disadvantage it has been battling since independence, instead, it has “made our people lazy”.

The governor called on JAMB to abolish the low cut-off marks to encourage students from the region “to work hard and compete” with their southern counterparts.

“The north has always been behind in education. We’ve continuously been the disadvantaged region right from independence even though we’re given preferences, JAMB scores and all that. That has not helped; in fact, it has made our people lazy,” the governor said.

“Against this differential JAMB and FG (federal government) scores, I think people should be encouraged to work hard and compete, and we are prepared to make our children in Kaduna state be competitive, not only in the state but globally.”

El-Rufai Speaks On Schools Resumption In Kaduna

The governor said the state will start reopening schools “from the next two weeks” after they were closed for months owing to the security situation in Kaduna.

“The schools are closed now because, on the advice of security agencies, they need a couple of months to undertake massive security operations. They are doing that. We are confident that from the next two weeks, we would start the gradual reopening of schools.

“We have moved many of our students in rural areas that we are not sure we can protect to urban schools, thereby increasing the congestion in urban schools that we can protect.

“The continuous closure of schools is exactly what bandits and Boko Haram want and we are not going to let them win but we must put the safety of our children and teachers first,” El-Rufai said.

KanyiDaily recalls that Governor El-Rufai had previously declared that JAMB’s low cut-off marks given to Northerners was making the youths lazy instead of encouraging them.