All is indeed not well with the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) following the shoddy conduct of the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), in which over 1.5million candidates scored less than 200 points. Only 420,415 candidates scored above 200 points, with 4,756 of them scoring above 320 points while 2,031 candidates (0.10 %) scored below 100 points. About 73,441 (3.76%) scored 250 to 299; 334,560 candidates (17.11%) scored 200 to 249; 983,187 candidates (50.29%) scored 160 to 199; 488,197 candidates (24.97%) scored 140 to159; 57,417 candidates (2.94%) scored 120 to 139 and 3,820 candidates (0.20%) scored 100 to119. Unfortunately, a 19-year old female candidate reportedly committed suicide over the poor UTME result in Lagos State.
The mass failure in JAMB examination has expectedly attracted national outrage with students, parents and groups warming up to sue the national examination body over what they described as negligence. The Minister of Education, Tunji Alausa, had explained the mass failure as showing that JAMB strategy of checking examination malpractice is indeed working. Former governor of Anambra State and the 2023 presidential candidate of Labour Party, Mr. Peter Obi, had expressed deep concern and described the situation as a reflection of Nigeria’s deteriorating education system.
While JAMB was initially rationalizing and explaining away the mass failure in the UTME examination, many stakeholders strongly believed that something was wrong with the conduct of the examination considering the zonal pattern of mass failure, which affected mostly candidates from the South-East region and Lagos State zone. The President of Congress of University Academics (CONUA), Dr. Niyi Sunmonu, said the performance index reveals a deep rooted crisis in our educational system.
He also pointed out that the limited number of high performers and the overwhelming concentration of candidates in the lower score brackets indicate widespread issues in a number of deliverables like curriculum delivery, teacher quality, equitable access to quality education and mastery of Computer Based Test (CBT) procedures by students. According to him, the data present to all of us a sobering reflection of the state of our national basic and secondary education system.
Similarly, the founder of Exam Ethics Marshall International (EEMI), Ike Onyechere, said the outcome was not surprising and noted that the mass failure had exposed the deep-rooted problems in the nation’s education system. The outcome of the 2025 UTME has also underscored the rot in JAMB as well.
Following the review of the UTME result, the Registrar of JAMB, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, did the right thing on Wednesday by publicly admitting error in the conduct of the UTME. He said the 2025 UTME was marred by technical glitches in Lagos and Owerri zones. He also admitted that the technical errors affected the credibility of the 2025 UTME. Oloyede also apologized to students, parents and others affected by the technical glitches. He wept and showed remorse and accepted full responsibility. The JAMB Registrar has demonstrated that he was pained by the error or ‘sabotage’ in the 2025 UTME.
Beyond accepting responsibility over the poor 2025 UTME result, Oloyede should address the rot in JAMB. The outcome of the 2025 UTME is just one of them. JAMB was established in 1978 to address the rot in the university admission process by each university then. Before the emergence of JAMB, there were glaring cases of admission racketeering with some candidates gaining multiple admissions and the sale of lucrative courses slots to wealthy candidates.
Many decades after the advent of JAMB, the rot is still there. Although Oloyede has done his best to clean the Augean stable in the examination body, there are still a lot to be done. Oloyede has done so much to make JAMB a major revenue earner while the quality of test and conduct of UTME is deteriorating. In the first place, JAMB ought not to be a revenue generating agency. It is an examination body for admitting students into the university and other tertiary institutions.
JAMB should concentrate on how to better the conduct of the examination and the admission process into the universities and other higher institutions. The JAMB’s emphasis on generating more revenue has robbed it of the energy to deliver quality UTME hence the mass failure recorded in the 2025 UTME. JAMB must work hard to stop the corruption in the admission process in many universities especially for lucrative and prestigious courses such as medicine, nursing, pharmacy, law, some engineering courses and public health.
Some of these courses are reportedly sold to the highest bidders in most of the public universities every admission season. It can also happen in some private universities as well. Some cough out up to N1million or N2 million for some of these courses and parents pay dearly to procure such admissions. It could be more in some of these universities. Going back to the old admission system where each university is in charge will likely worsen the situation. What JAMB must do now is to sit down and review the admission process in public and private universities where admission to these courses is riddled with monumental corruption.
Despite the advent of JAMB, it has not stopped admission racketeering. Clever Nigerians still procure admissions with money even if they passed for such courses. JAMB should intentionally overhaul its conduct of UTME in terms of timing, allocation of candidates to centres and the timeframe for the purchase of JAMB form, mock exam and the period for the real conduct of the exam. JAMB should stop fixing examination for 6.30 am. JAMB should cancel the 6.30 am exams. It is unnerving for many of the candidates who were posted to CBT centres very far from their homes.
Let JAMB address the technical glitches in many of its centres where the computers are obsolete and servers cannot work effectively and the assigning of wrong test questions to some candidates. The test must be reliable and predictable. It must reflect the age and experience of the candidates. The UTME should not be above West African School Certificate O’Level experience. Is JAMB aware of some ‘miracle’ CBT centres across the country where the owners or administrators of such immoral centres dictate answers to UTME candidates?
The government should also overhaul the nation’s education system and our education policy in line with the expectations of the learners and the government. Do we want to produce students who will effectively compete with their peers the world over or students who will depend solely on copy and paste to achieve success? Parents should decide what exactly they really want from their children. Parents should stop registering their children in miracle centres for UTME, WASSCE, NECO and other examinations.
They should allow their children to study hard and pass the examination on their effort alone. Children should not be rushed through primary and secondary schools and even universities. The rush is unnecessary and unhelpful. There is even no need to rush them. Let them grow and mature at their own pace and face life on their own terms. The mass failure in the 2025 UTME is a lesson for all of us. Let JAMB remedy the situation forthwith as it has promised to do. JAMB must do everything humanly possible to avert such system failures in future examinations. Not less than 379,997 candidates will sit for fresh UTME in five states of the South-East region and Lagos State.