Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, the Registrar of Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, JAMB, has demonstrated maturity and good leadership by admitting that something went wrong with the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination, UTME.
“He readily showed empathy by agreeing truly that there was failure in the system and took responsibility, with corrective follow-up actions.
“Currently, what should be key are preventive solutions, such that there is no future recurrence of the underperformance at UTME,” a political scientist and lawyer, Prof. Babafemi Badejo, said.
Mr Badejo, a former Deputy Special Representative for the UN Secretary-General for Somalia, spoke in a telephone interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Thursday.
“Despite the uproar over the 2025 UTME, it is important to recognise the integrity-driven leadership of Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, who has consistently fought corruption and pushed for reforms.
“However, even strong leadership needs to be adaptive and listen to the cries of the people,” he said.
He urged JAMB to continue fine-tune its operations to deliver excellently.
“It is good that the public reaction has met with responsible action from JAMB in this case.
“A calm, evidence-based review of the 2025 UTME is not only necessary, it is urgent,” he said.
Mr Badejo said that Nigeria required massive digital literacy campaigns in secondary schools, especially rural ones.
“The 774 local governments, with more funding expected to result from the autonomy they are expected to have under the present dispensation, should invest in computer-based modern libraries.
“Private entities could also be encouraged to spend some of their corporate social responsibility funds on setting up computer-based libraries.
“Computer Based Test (CBT) simulation workshops should become mandatory for all candidates before Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), and similar examinations,” he said.
He added that an independent audit of CBT centres and software providers should be a regular duty of regulatory bodies, including JAMB.
“There has been a lot of brouhaha over the 2025 UTME results.
“Over two million candidates registered for the examination and about 1. 94 million sat for it.
“Over 75 per cent ( over 1.5 million) scored below 200. This development has not gone down well with parents and candidates who took to social media to express outrage,” he said.
The professor said that the 2025 UTME had become one of the most controversial in recent history.
According to him, the controversy is not just due to the number of candidates who scored below 200, but because of the complaints revolving around the efficiency of the system and the credibility of the results.
“The problem also raises critical questions about the examination process, integrity and educational equity,” he said.
He noted that the controversy was resulting in efforts aimed at understanding what could have gone wrong, if anything was indeed wrong.
“The 2025 UTME imbroglio throws up several issues that have been yearning for solutions.
“There has to be more readiness in embracing digital-only examinations, both on the part of the examining agencies, service providers and the service users or candidates.
“For instance, some supervisors noticed system malfunctions at CBT centres, freezing screens, login problems, and loss of answers.
“Some candidates were reportedly logged out without submitting or could not navigate between subjects,” he said.
He said that those were no faults of the candidates.
“Many candidates, especially from rural or low-income backgrounds, lacked basic computer literacy.
“A supervisor’s report highlighted that some candidates didn’t know how to operate a keyboard or mouse, much less navigate the CBT interface.
“In simple terminology, technological illiteracy or, at best, semi-illiteracy is yearning for solutions.
“Not many candidates or customers of JAMB grew up with the advantage of using computers as an everyday life item,” he said.
He said there had to be some middle ground for inclusivity.
“However, the answer is not to opt out of technological change but to come up with answers on how to democratise the availability of knowledge on technological change – the change that is spreading in our world to all Nigerian children who are actively motivated towards education.
“Though JAMB could play a role in deploying some of its earnings for such a purpose, the answer should involve society and its governance structures at large.
“We must be more intentional with issues that affect the destinies and future of young Nigerians,” he said.
He urged that UTME should not just be seen as a mere exercise, but as a very important platform – an important platform through which future technocrats and the crop of people who would take over the skilled manpower machinery of the country are practically filtered.
NAN
