THE results of the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination, UTME, an examination conducted by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, JAMB, for eligible candidates seeking admission into the various tertiary institutions in Nigeria has once again brought to the fore, the systemic dysfunction in the nation’s education sector.

THE analysis of the results, according to the JAMB, indicated that out of the 1.9million candidates that registered and sat for the examination, 1.3million candidates, representing about 71 per cent of the total candidates scored below 200 out of the 400 obtainable points, one of the worst performances in recent years.

THE results’ analysis further showed a decline in the performance of students in the UTME when compared to the results breakdowns of the two previous years.

In 2023, from the 1.5million candidates that sat for the examination, only a total of 355,179 candidates scored 200 points and above while in 2024, out of the 1.9million candidates that registered and sat for the UTME, a total of 1,402,490 candidates representing 76 per cent of the total candidates got 200 points and below.

THE development swiftly generated widespread tractions in public discourse, especially after one candidate took her own life, with education stakeholders demanding an explanation from JAMB authorities on the factors responsible for the recurrent mass failure in the UTME over the years. Faith Opesusi Timilehin, 19, who was aspiring to study Microbiology at the university died after swallowing poison, her family disclosed.

IN the midst of the backlashes, the Registrar of JAMB, Professor Ishaq Oloyede,  while addressing the widespread complaints over the results at a press conference disclosed that the board had discovered some technical glitches, caused by faulty server updates during the conduct of the examination in 157 centres in six states including Lagos, Imo, Anambra, Oyo, Abia and Ebonyi that might have significantly contributed to the mass failure of candidates.

BUT education experts countered Oloyede, hinging the poor performance of students in the examination over the years on their inability to perpetrate examination malpractices, following the introduction of the Computer Based Tests (CBT) mode by JAMB in 2013, unlike the former analogue mode that gives room for widespread cheating, poor preparations by students for the UTME and the general decline in reading culture among students.However, despite the mass failure, it was reported that some candidates stood tall among their struggling peers across the country. One of them is Master Olumide Afọlabi, a 15-year old student of Icons Comprehensive College in Ijapo Estate, Akure, Ondo State who scored 370 out of the 400 marks obtainable in the examination, a feat JAMB authorities confirmed has not been achieved by any candidate in the last decade. JAMB records showed that no candidate has attained a score of 370 since the inception of the CBT mode in 2013.

OLUMIDE’S rare academic achievement is a proof of the fact that academic excellence still exists despite growing concerns about reading culture among students gradually going into extinction.

THE HOPE urges the Ondo State Government and other stakeholders in the state’s education sector to celebrate and reward Olumide’s hardwork and dedication to academic excellence to serve as a motivation for other students. We equally call on students to devote adequate time to their academic pursuits, rather than focusing on the social media and other distractions.

IF Olumide, a 15-year old student can achieve such a rare feat through commitment to academic excellence, it means other students can as well record such academic landmarks if they emulate this young scholar’s virtues.

THE HOPE commends Olumide’s parents, teachers and school for making Ondo State proud. We also acknowledge the fact that JAMB is not short of funds, in view of the high level of funds it remits to the Federal Government from the annual sale of forms. We, therefore, aver that the technical glitches were not as a result of lack of funds to put necessary preventive measures in place, but possibly the handiwork of saboteurs.

THE time for the Federal Government to probe these incessant inconsistencies in the annual conduct of the UTME by JAMB and come up with relevant reforms is now.