Over 5,000 students gain admission into Lagos model colleges

The Lagos State Ministry of Education has placed 5,278 successful candidates who scored 65% and above in the last Model College placement test in the 16 Model Colleges/Upgraded Secondary Schools including the new Girls Model Junior College, Agunfoye, Ikorodu.

The Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Education, Mr. Adesina Odeyemi, who made this known in his office recently, said that 10,592 candidates registered for the examination while 10, 323 wrote test and 8,147 representing 78.92% scored above 50%, an indication that the placement test was not only competitive, the pupils made an impressive outing.

Odeyemi explained that the 65% cut off mark was a function of the available vacancies in all the Model Colleges and for fairness and equity, all pupils who scored above the cut-off mark were placed.

He noted that this was a departure from the practice in the past where those who could not meet the cut-off mark of their schools of choice lost out completely.

190 pupils who chose Vetland Junior Grammar School and scored between 65% and 79% who could not get placed at Vetland will be placed in public junior secondary schools around the place because it is a day school.

The Permanent Secretary promised that parents of successful candidates will be contacted through Short Message Service (SMS) on the contact telephone line made available on the form.

However, the placement went on display at the headquarters of the six education districts from Friday, 25th August, 2017.

He explained that parents can also check the placement results at the closest district irrespective of the choice of school of their children/wards.

Parents and Guardians whose children or wards scored 65% and above were advised to start making arrangement for the September 10 resumption date preparatory for the beginning of new academic session in Lagos State.

It would be recalled that to curb examination malpractices during the placement test, Optical Mark Recognition Machines were deployed to emboss pictures of candidates on the registration cards to prevent representation by proxy.

Also randomisation of questions and branding of question papers per candidate was part of the reforms that were introduced to ensure that the results were a true reflection of the pupils’ ability.