The weight of the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) results recently released by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), must have been heavy on every right-thinking Nigerian.
Analysis of the results shows that out of the 1,955,069 applicants who took the examination only 420,415 candidates scored higher than 200. By implication, more than 1.5 million did not meet the threshold.
By Emeka Alex DuruThe wright of the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) results recently released by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), must have been heavy on every right-thinking Nigerian.Analysis of the results shows that out of the 1,955,069 applicants who took the examination only 420,415 candidates scored higher than 200. By implication, more than 1.5 million did not meet the threshold.Out of the lot, less than 1% of the candidates scored higher than 300 on the test, while 75% of the candidates scored lower than 200, according to the data. The breakdown is disturbing.It is therefore not surprising that many interpretations have been given to the poor outing. The Minister for education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, explained the high failure rate as clear evidence of government’s anti-malpractice measures yielding results, especially within the JAMB system. Alausa made the assertion on appearance on Channels Television. “That’s a big concern, and it’s a reflection of exams being done the proper way. JAMB conducts its exam using a computer-based testing system. They’ve implemented strong security measures, and as a result, fraud or cheating has been completely eliminated. Unfortunately, we cannot say the same for WAEC and NECO”, he said.