In the face of technical and human errors that marred the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), parents have canvassed a scrap of the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) while also calling for the sack of Ishaq Oloyede, its registrar.
JAMB’s latest UTME results show that a total of 1,955,069 candidates sat for the UTME, with over 75 percent scoring below 200.
Apart from the low scores, the exam conduct and results were marred by errors, with various groups threatening lawsuits.
On Wednesday, Oloyede admitted errors in the just-concluded examination affecting 206,610 in 65 centres. He said the affected candidates were in Lagos and 92 centres in Owerri zone, comprising 173,387 candidates in the five states of the South East.
Educationists and parents have called for the scrap of the UTME, with some seeking an alternative to JAMB, exactly the way the National Examinations Council (NECO) has become a viable substitute for the West African Examinations Council (WASSCE).
Read also: 2025 UTME: Sowore, Onigbinde ask JAMB registrar to resign
“We should have another body that will compete with JAMB or even scrap the UTME,” said Ike Iheobunanwa, an Abuja-based parent of three.
“JAMB’s monopoly is costing the nation a lot, just as WAEC was costing the nation before the start of NECO in 2000. There should be some level of competition. WAEC officials used to do whatever they liked but changed since NECO started. We should also have a conversation as to whether the UTME is still necessary.”
Stella Johnson, a university lecturer in Abuja, noted that “JAMB was unravelled this year because people said ‘enough is enough.’”
“For me, there are two options left for Nigeria. One, scrap JAMB and allow candidates to write university entrance exams at their schools of choice.
“Two, create another body that can compete with JAMB to eliminate monopoly,” Johnson, a mother of four, said.
For Isaiah Ogundele, a Lagos-based educationist, it is time for the country to find an alternative body that would check the external examination bodies.
“I think it is high time we had another body that would act as checks and balances like NECO vs JAMB, since JAMB is strictly for admission into tertiary institutions.
“There is nothing anybody can do if the monopoly is not broken. There is no amount of apology or cry that can fill the vacuum because this is a life matter,” he said.
Kehinde Oguntola, a father of two, noted that the UTME should be totally scrapped as students are still subjected to another exam by institutions they applied for.
Calls for registrar’s sack grow
Several Nigerians have called for the sack of Oloyede, noting that this year’s exam has caused a lot of hardship on Nigerians.
Seun Onigbinde, co-founder of BudgIT, said on his X account on Thursday that the institution was “almost running away with it without the courageous efforts of incredible Nigerians. Professor Oloyede should step aside and a total audit on the exams should be conducted.”
Omoyele Sowore, a former presidential candidate, questioned the relevance of the exam body, while calling for the registrar’s sack or resignation.
“This is a country of really dangerous public officials. While @JAMBHQ registrar is here forming that he ‘regrets’ the monumental disaster he superintended upon that has claimed a young life, and instead of resigning immediately, he brought to the same press conference a bunch of callous yesmen to clap for him. #ScrapJAMB Sack the incompetent Prof. Oloyede.”
Dipo Awojide, a United Kingdom-based chartered management consultant, said: “This is really very unfortunate. Since 2015, I repeatedly said my number one pick for the Minister of Education role is Prof Oloyede. Now, I believe he has done his time in a top job and he should resign. We will still celebrate him and parrot his successes for decades.”
Jerry Abure, a polytechnic lecturer and father of three, noted that nothing short of resignation or sack should be accepted from the JAMB registrar. “If your children are enmeshed in this confusion, you would appreciate how much impact it has had on the candidates.”
Nonye Mbah, a mother of a UTME candidate in the controversial exam, said Oloyede’s time is up.
She said her daughter is yet to recover from the trauma of the exam and her poor UTME score, stressing the need for the government to review the activities of the agency.
Review results of underaged candidates
Educationists have also called for a review of the results of underage candidates, stressing that they should not take the fall for JAMB’s failures.
Nubi Achebo, director of academic planning at Nigerian University of Technology and Management (NUTM), called on JAMB to review the results of the underage students who were negatively impacted by the glitches and allow them to retake the examination
“JAMB should consider releasing the results of all underage candidates, including their scores, to help them identify areas for improvement. This would enable them to prepare better for future exams,” he said.
Achebo emphasised the need for the board to provide feedback mechanism, remedy for examination glitches and compensate other affected candidates.
“JAMB should establish a feedback mechanism for underage candidates to understand their performance and guide them on how to improve and address the technical issues that affected some candidates.
Read also: Peter Obi: JAMB glitches caused trauma, even death; no room for such failures
“Consider rescheduling exams for candidates who experienced technical issues or providing alternative assessment methods. This has happened, but my fear is that the measure currently deployed by JAMB does not necessarily cover all those impacted,” he noted.
Friday Erhabor, director of media and strategies at Marklenez Limited, does not see any reasons why JAMB should be discriminatory with age in relation to the UTME.
“JAMB should just conduct the examination and leave each university to determine who is qualified to gain admission. JAMB is only an examination ranking board, hence should allow each university to decide who they want to admit based on cut off marks,” he said.
But Ogundele, earlier quoted, has a different opinion. He said parents of the underage candidates must abide by the rules of the examination.
“The under-aged candidates should wait for their time. Giving admission to the underaged is like creating a problem for the future because many of them, due to their ages, may not be able to handle some issues of life like peer pressure and other social vices they might be introduced to,” he noted.
