2025 UTME POSTMORTEM: WHAT SAY THE FIGURES? By Toyyib Musa-Omoloja

2025 UTME POSTMORTEM: WHAT SAY THE FIGURES?

Before we got drowned by the hooplas of pessimists who don’t believe anything good can come out of Nigeria; let us reflect on the figures contained in the latest press release from Prof. Oloyede where he took responsibility for all that happened during the just concluded UTME.

Even though, those who are pathologically wired to think that no public official can rise above mediocrity, disappointment and failure found joy in castigating the JAMB Registrar, the truth is that Oloyede has been an exemplary public servant, a model of integrity and excellence, and a beacon of hope for our beleaguered country.

That aside, let us quickly look at the breakdown of the postmortem figures as contained in the Registrar’s press statement and see whether the retake will significantly alter the overall UTME scores and trends or not.

In the whole country, there were 882 centres. Out of this number, 157 centres were affected by the technical problem that marred the examination. That means, 17.8 % or roughly 18% of the centers were affected.

And as for individual candidates, in Lagos Zone, 206, 610 candidates were affected. Whereas, in Owerri Zone, 173, 387 candidates were affected. That means, throughout the country, a total number of 379, 997 candidates will resit the UTME out of total number of 1, 955, 067 candidates who sat for the examination initially. That means, 19.4% of the candidates will retake the examination.

Now, let us reflect on these figures.

Is the problem with 19.4% or let’s even say 20% of the results significant?

Definitely, it is significant. But if all the about 380, 000 student were to score above 200 or 300, would that dramatically change the general pattern of the UTME? I don’t think so.

If this is the case, what does that tell us?

The inference from this is that we should look beyond the human error or sabotage or whatever that happened at JAMB, and address the fundamental issue fuelling declining academic performance of our students.

A stich in time saves nine.

God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

©  Toyyib Musa-Omoloja a public affairs analyst, is a lecturer at Rufus Giwa Polytechnic Owo Ondo State 15th May, 2025