It would appear that nothing has really changed with the performance of university hopefuls who recently sat for the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) examination this year.
Once again, we are greeted with a familiar narrative: dismal results, frustrated students, overwhelmed parents, some of whom have even stormed JAMB offices to protest their children’s poor performances, and a society caught in the vicious cycle of educational stagnation. According to early media reports and education analysts, Of the 1.9 million candidates who sat the UTME, over 1.5 million reportedly scored below 200 out of the maximum 400 marks, continuing the worrying trend seen in previous years.
This isn’t just a statistical failure. It is a moral one. It reveals how we continue to shortchange the youth, denying them the tools needed to thrive in a competitive global economy. Dr. Fabian Benjamin, JAMB’s spokesperson, has consistently emphasised that the Board is merely an assessment body and not responsible for teaching students. “The quality of results is directly proportional to the quality of preparation,” he once remarked.
The only noticeable difference between this year and last year’s JAMB is that, unlike last year, no parent was reportedly caught impersonating their child during the exams. In 2024, during an inspection of the examination proceedings at the Kaduna State University CBT Centre, Kaduna, JAMB Registrar Professor Ishaq Oloyede informed newsmen that a father had been apprehended for impersonating his son. Both were promptly detained and handed over for legal prosecution. Additionally, no candidate has emerged to announce that they scored the highest, only to be exposed for being deceptive as was the case of Mmesoma Ejikemeʼs infamous forgery in the 2023 UTME. The absence of such incidents this year indicates a slight improvement in ethics, but it is hardly cause for celebration when academic performance remains woefully poor.
However, a different kind of tragedy struck when 19-year-old Opesusi Faith Timilehin took her own life following the release of her Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) exam results. Miss Faith is said to have passed away after allegedly ingesting a rodenticide known as ‘Push Out’. According to reports, she scored 190 in her second attempt at the exam—an outcome she believed was lower than her 2024 result, leaving her devastated. The heartbreaking incident occurred in Odogunyan, Ikorodu, Lagos State, where Faith resided with her sister.
To make matters worse, JAMB held a press conference to disclose that there were errors during the conduct of the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) that affected the performance of many candidates. JAMB Registrar, Professor Ishaq Oloyede, made this known while speaking at a press conference in Abuja on Wednesday. Prof. Oloyede who fought back tears while speaking, revealed that the board has rescheduled fresh UTME for 379,997 candidates in the five states of the South-East and Lagos State. Prof Oloyede said; “What should have been a moment of joy has been marred by one or two errors. Once again, I apologise and I assure you that this incident represents a significant setback. We remain committed to emerging stronger in our core values of transparency, fairness and equity. It is our culture to admit error because we know that despite the best of our efforts, we are humans. We are not perfect.”
Understandably, Nigerians across social media have expressed their indignation and displeasure at this controversial and unfortunate turn of events. Some have even gone as far as to blame the board for Faith Timilehinʼs demise. And although people have every right to be critical of JAMBʼs misstep, it is important not to throw away the baby with the bath water. I believe that this decision was not an easy one for the board to take, but while others would have simply swept things under the carpet, we should commend JAMB for doing the right thing in order to maintain the integrity of the examination process. Now, hope has been restored for the affected candidates, who should accept the decision as a step toward fairness and transparency.
Beyond the technical issues which JAMB would no doubt tackle to avoid a recurrence, we need to collectively ask hard questions to ensure that the state of education in Nigeria does not regress beyond redemption. For example, we need to ask questions about the preparation of these students. What quality of education do they receive? Are their schools equipped with science labs, libraries, or qualified teachers? In too many cases, the answer is no. It is saddening that even in this age and time, some states still have one teacher instructing hundreds of students under leaky roofs with no electricity or instructional materials.
Beyond the schools, what role do parents play? Many are too busy, overburdened, or unaware of how to guide their children academically. And the government? Successive administrations have chanted the same old rhetoric – “education is the bedrock of development”, without necessarily matching it with the kind of budgetary commitment seen in serious nations.
To illustrate, Nigeria’s education budget for 2024 stood at roughly 6.3% of the national budget, far below the UNESCO-recommended 15-20%. That alone tells the story of our priorities. We cannot continue to blame JAMB for what is fundamentally a structural and systemic failure. A child who has gone through six years of primary education and another six in secondary school, yet cannot score 200 in an exam testing basic knowledge, is not unintelligent. He is heavily underserved.
To fix this, we must go back to the foundation. Training and retraining of teachers must become sacrosanct. Curriculum reform must be bold and forward-thinking. Infrastructure must be modernised. More importantly, education must be depoliticised and insulated from corruption and nepotism. Finally, we must also assign a portion of the blame to the students. This is because even if all conditions were to be perfect, many students would still fail woefully. It is unfortunate that for a generation that has better access to more knowledge than any other period of modern history, students spend more time on social media than on books. It is even more disturbing when you realize that the proliferation of AI-based tools has induced unforseen levels of laziness in students. Students nowadays don’t bother to sit down and read when they could simply “ask ChatGPT” and rely on its responses without even bothering to fact-check.
Until we confront these issues head-on, 2026 will be no different in terms of declining academic performance. And ultimately, another generation will inch closer to hopelessness, armed only with the hollow promise of a better tomorrow.
Zayd Ibn Isah can be reached at [email protected]
