Kano State has begun the selection for placement of qualified candidates into Junior Secondary School (JSS-1) of the 110 Federal Unity Colleges (FUCs) in the country, for the 2020/2021 academic session.
This was disclosed by the state’s Minister of Education, Mr Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba, who declared the exercise open on Monday in Kano.
The Minister said that 24,416 candidates made the cut-off marks to qualify for selection into the FUCs nationwide.
“The data we received showed that out of the 93,294 candidates who registered for the National Common Entrance Examination (NCEE), only 76,580 sat for the examination.
“24,416 candidates have qualified for the selection into the Federal Unity Colleges across the country,” Nwajiuba said.
“We are all aware that today’s meeting which is for selection has become an annual event and has been identified as a great stride in our efforts to ensure equity and quality access in the education system.
“The placement criteria include; National merit, 60 per cent of the college carrying capacity and candidates with 142 scores and above.
“Others are equality of states, 30 per cent of college carrying capacity, exigency and 10 per cent of college carrying capacity’’ he added.
According to him, the decision to emphasize on merit was in the best interest of the nation, adding that he had confidence in the integrity of the selectors.
“I have confidence in your integrity to do a thorough job so that at the end of the exercise, we can be sure that the right candidates were selected and placed appropriately,” he said.
Mrs Binta Abdulkadir, Director, Basic and Secondary Education, said the exercise was coming a bit late due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The quality of candidates we select today will definitely have positive implications for the performance of our colleges in public examinations in future.
“We must therefore be careful to place only qualified candidates based on the new admission criteria, which is put in place with effect from 2014/2015 academic session,” Abdulkadir said.
Kano State Commissioner for Education, Mr Sanusi Kiru, commended the Federal Government for establishing a new Federal Science and Technology College in the state.
He said that the state government would provide all the necessary support to ensure its take-off early in 2022.
He added that the state government had provided a temporary site for the commencement of academic activities in case the project was not completed as planned.
