15
May
May
IT IS TIME TO SCRAP JAMB AND STOP THE WASTE
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Abubakar Alkali / 2 months
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- 10 min read
Friday Lines With:Dr Abubakar Alkali 15/5/25 The time has come to pop the question ‘Is JAMB still relevant in Nigeria’s education system? By miles, the answer to this question is NO. The joint admissions and matriculation board (JAMB) is no longer relevant and should be scrapped in order to strengthen the tertiary admission process and make it hitch-free. Students don’t need any UTME qualifying examination after scoring 5 O’ Level credits including Maths and English. All they need is a centralised application ID to apply for admission directly to universities and other tertiary institutions. It is fair to say that JAMB is scandalising the admission process into tertiary institutions in Nigeria. Instead of promoting a seamless process and making it easier for candidates to gain admission into institutions of their choice if they satisfy the O’ Level requirements of the respective institutions, JAMB seems to be compounding the problem by making it difficult for candidates to gain admission even after scoring high grades in their O’ Level examination. How can a candidate score 7 As on WAEC and not qualify for admission into courses of their choice due to low JAMB score? If there should be any criteria to trim the number of candidates who apply to study a particular course, let such criteria be set by the respective universities. Nigerian universities are overstretched and sometimes even candidates with the required JAMB score above the so-called cut off mark are not admitted thus making it necessary that the universities set their individual criteria and absorb students based on the individual capacity of the universities and not forced by JAMB. There is no need for a qualifying unified tertiary matriculation examination (UTME) set by JAMB. Let the candidates apply directly to the universities. Just consider the mass JAMB failure recorded this year as a reference;In the 2025 UTME conducted by JAMB, out of the 1,955,069 million candidates who sat for the examination, over 1,534,654 million (78.5%) scored less than 200 out of the maximum 400.This means only 21.5% actually passed JAMB this year. This is an outrage! The 2025 UTME mass failure is certainly not because the candidates are not good enough but because JAMB is not good enough. How can a candidate make 7 As in WAEC and score just 150 out of 400 in JAMB? Something must be fundamentally wrong. Most of these candidates who scored less than 200 have made at least 5 O’ level credits including Maths and English but cannot gain admission into courses of their choice due to their low JAMB scores. The breakdown of the results this year is appalling and further raises the question as to the relevance or otherwise of JAMB; Out of the 1,955,069 who sat for the examination, only 4,756 (0.24%) scored above 320 out of 400. Also, only 7,658 (0.39%) scored between 300-319 and just 12,414 scored above 300 (0.63%). Considering the number of candidates who scored 200 and above, only about 21.5% could be said to have passed JAMB. This is a huge setback for hundreds of thousands of qualified candidates some of whom have made 9 As in their O’ levels but cannot gain admission courtesy of JAMB. To all intents and purposes, the joint admission and matriculation board (JAMB) has jammed itself into a corner especially when juxtaposed with its latest failure to organise even a basic UTME as admitted by its registrar Prof Isaac Oloyede. JAMB has admitted to errors in the 2025 UTME and asked 379,997 to come back and retake the examination. This is as a result of the ‘technical glitch’ experienced in 157 out of the 887 UTME centres across Nigeria. At whose cost will the examination be retaken? Already some candidates have through their lawyers, written to JAMB asking questions and threatening to take JAMB to court over a breach of agreement. The academic staff union of universities (ASUU) has threatened to sue JAMB to court. What’s the essence of the UTME if you may ask? Why can’t the candidates apply directly to the universities to avoid these ‘technical glitches’ and cogwheels? Even before it’s latest failure in the 2025 UTME, it is fair to say that JAMB has outlived its usefulness and is no longer relevant as a veritable tool for candidates to apply and gain entry into tertiary institutions in Nigeria. If anything, JAMB is very clearly today a duplication of efforts and resources and should be scrapped. Savings from the scrapping of JAMB should be invested into building SKILLS ACQUISITION CENTRES up and down the country to enable both graduates and non-graduates acquire hands-on skills to make them employable. Come to think of it, does a candidate really need JAMB to gain entry into the university? NOThe universities can absorb students directly without having to go through any UTME set by JAMB. Even during our days in the university, some of us entered the universities through the MATRICULATION a.k.a PRE-DEGREE route which is a route set by the university independent of JAMB. All that was required was the standard 5 O’ level credits including English and Maths. Some universities particularly the private ones today actually admit students without JAMB on the condition that they provide JAMB results AFTER graduation. Whether these candidates made the right JAMB score after graduation or not is another matter entirely. They have finished their course anyway. If a candidate has achieved 5 O’ level credits in line with the minimum requirements set by the prospective universities, why should the candidate have to go through the multiple choice UTME conducted by JAMB? What value does entering the university through JAMB has? Why should a candidate have to sit for another examination set by JAMB even after attaining 5 O’ level credits minimum including Maths and English language? The university can choose which course the candidate qualifies for based on their O’ level results. Scrap JAMB and allow the universities absorb candidate directly to encouraged healthy competition among the universities and other tertiary institutions.
