By Nafisat Makinde
The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has released the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) results, with a staggering majority of candidates scoring below 200 marks out of 400.
Over 1.5 million candidates faced disappointment, with only 21% scoring 200 marks out of 400. This outcome is particularly concerning given the consistent trend of less than 30% of candidates achieving an aggregate score of 50% over the past five years.
Engr. Akeju Olagbaju, a retired Federal Director, on Tuesday in Abuja attributed the poor performance to fundamental issues with JAMB’s approach to assessing candidates’ suitability for university admission.
“Looking at the distribution based on statistics given by JAMB, it is easy to discern that something is fundamentally wrong with JAMB’s approach,” he said. The JAMB Registrar, Prof. Oloyede, attributes the high failure rate to efforts to prevent examination malpractices.
However, Akeju notes that JAMB’s emphasis on preventing malpractices might unfairly blame candidates. “As at now, JAMB can always find it easy to overlook system failures and blame the candidates for their awful performances. This to me is rather unfair to the teachers and students who have worked so hard only to see their expectation dashed.”
The Computer-Based Test (CBT) format has limitations due to varying computer configurations across centers, which can impact candidate performance. In a statement released by Akeju, “The use and configuration of computers vary across centers, which can impact candidate performance.”
He advocates for alternative assessment methods, such as theory paper tests, which would provide a more comprehensive evaluation of candidates’ knowledge and skills. “It’s high time JAMB discarded the objective nature of examination and moved to subjective version in the form of theory paper test,” he said.
Akeju warns that if JAMB fails to reform its processes, it risks losing relevance. “In my opinion, JAMB needs to reform itself to remain relevant, or it will struggle to guarantee candidates’ admission to universities in the future,” he concluded.
