JAMB DISPELS RUMOURS OF MASS FAILURE

The Matriculation Board(JAMB) has dispelled rumours of mass failure in the recently-conducted 2021 Unified Tertiary Matricultion Examination(UTME).


The JAMB Registrar, Prof. Is-haq Oloyede, made this clarification on Thursday, 1st July 2021, in his office, at the Board's National Headquarters, Bwari, when he received the delegation of the National Association of Nigerian Students(NANS)led by its newly- elected President, Comrade Abdulmajeed Oyeniyi, who was accompanied by the former President, Comrade Danielson Akpan.


The Registrar, in his characteristic manner, gave a detailed explanation to the delegation, asserting that the UTME is a ranking examination and not a fail or pass examination as widely believed.


He added that the UTME is aimed at ranking those candidates who are already qualified and seeking admissions into tertiary institutions in the country.


The Registrar said, "The UTME is a ranking rather than an achievement or certificated examination.


It’s an examination designed for ranking candidates who are already qualified, by their possessing five O’level credits, to be admitted into tertiary institutions.


As such, the UTME does not admit anybody into any tertiary institution, it's the five credits obtained from WAEC, NECO or NABTEB that does that.”


He also said, " In a ranking examination, there is no failure or pass and what the UTME does is to prevent rancour by ranking qualified candidates. If we have sufficient spaces we won’t even be conducting any examination."


The Registrar further explained the notion of what many refer to as cut-off marks stating that it should rather be referred to as the "minimum admissible score" as decided by respective tertiary institutions.


He stated that in a situation whereby an institution pegs its minimum admittable score at 200, it means no candidate could be admitted if he/she falls below the 200 thresholds and not that ever ybody who s cores the benchmark of 200 will be admitted.


The Registrar charged the NANS leadership to educate the populace as learned stakeholders and critical partners and future leaders.


He said, "It's important for you as future leaders to be very critical and appraise what you are doing thoroughly because you cannot afford to throw yourself into something that will question your intellectual prowess.”


On the widespread notion that the standard of education is falling, the Registrar said, "The concept is being misconstrued in some quarters. For instance, when candidates failed WAEC, we say the standard of education hasfallen.


If the standard of education has fallen they won't fail. It is rather because the standard has not fallen that they failed, as such, if the standard has fallen, no candidates could be assumed to have failed. "


In addition, the Registrar took time off to explain to the delegation the UTME registration procedures which entail the partnership with the National Identity Management Commission(NIMC) as well as the use of NIN and the various extensions given to candidates saying the use of NIN has helped the Board to arrive at the realistic number of candidates which, he said, aligned with the expectations of the Board and the reality
on the ground.


He said besides helping to stem the prevailing national security challenges which necessitated the introduction of a National Identification Number (NIN), the facility has also helped in addressing the myriads of infractions associated with the conduct of public examinations which begins at the point of registration.


He said, “We have two extensions, at a point, we said every candidate who desires to register should come forward even if he/she doesn’t have NIN yet.


What we harvested to add to the number already registered is not up to 1.5m which shows that the problem is not NIN.”


The former President of NANS, Comrade Danielson Akpan, in his remarks, thanked the Registrar for sparing the time to meet with the students' body.


He expressed the body's sincere appreciation as he declared that their coming had educated them on the widespread misconceptions regarding the UTME.


He said, "As stakeholders, we are now more informed as to the fact that, notwithstanding the overall performance in the UTME, candidates would still be ranked based on whatever available scores in any particular year.


He assured the Board that they would go back to engage their members on the real situation of things as far as the UTME is concerned.