In the face of an abysmal failure in the 2025 Unified Matriculation Examination (UTME), stakeholders have advocated curriculum reform and sustainable investment in basic education and teacher training to improve performance in public examinations.
The UTME results released on Monday by the Joint Admission Matriculation Board (JAMB) revealed that only 22.13% of the candidates who sat for the exam scored 200 and above.
The examination Board revealed that 432,829 out of 1,955,069 candidates scored 200 and above.
As a result, education experts say the results reflect that the nation must act fast to arrest the situation.
Read also: Peter Obi: Poor JAMB results reflect decades of neglect in education sector
Stanley Alaubi, a senior lecturer at the University of Port Harcourt, who spoke with BusinessDay from the United Kingdom, decried the abysmal result outcomes, describing it as ‘very poor.’
Alaubi said the solution to such results is tailoring the curriculum to reflect the country’s setting, and embracing competence-based education.
“Our curriculum should be changed to reflect our setting. I am in the UK currently for my leave. I see that Britons don’t take higher education seriously. They believe more in industrialisation. Everyone works and earns the minimum wage of £12.21 per hour. Their emphasis is on production,” he said.
“I think Nigeria should tow the Britain line and produce a curriculum that suits our setting in our African society, such that we can promote our local content and empower the people economically.”
Jessica Osuere, chief executive officer at RubiesHub Education Services, called for sustainable investment in basic education and human capital development of teachers to impact the students with quality learning outcomes.
“These poor performances call for urgent and sustained investment in basic education, teacher training, curriculum reform, and equitable access to learning resources.
“These results should serve as a wake-up call to policymakers, educators, and stakeholders to address the root causes and ensure that every Nigerian child has a fair chance at quality education and future success,” she said.
Osuere emphasised that the abysmal result statistics was a reflection of widespread learning gaps, inadequate teaching quality, and systemic underinvestment in education.
She stressed that University education is serious as manpower for national development is built through the system. According to the educationist, the government must invest in technical and entrepreneurship education, noting that those who cannot meet up the requirements to go to universities can have other options to explore.
Possible reasons for poor results
@Olufunmilayo, reacting to the results statistics on X, said it is a shame that over 75 percent of the students who sat 2025 UTME failed, attributing the outcome of the examination to poor administrative management by JAMB and students’ lackadaisical attitude to education.
“You cannot set an exam for 6:30am in the morning, which is an incredibly unsafe and dangerous time, and then express shock when these kids fail.
“Don’t get me wrong, JAMB’s time table is not the only reason why many of them failed. Some of those students are possibly lazy and didn’t read. But when you set an exam and over 75 percent fail, that is less a problem of the students. It’s either you have very bad teachers, or very terrible exam conditions or both,” Olufunmilayo noted.
Lowering the cut-off mark
Osuere argued that with the abysmal performance in UTME, there may be pressure to lower cut-off marks to accommodate more students.
However, she maintained that doing so risks diluting academic standards and undermining the integrity of higher education in Nigeria.
“Remember the UTME is over 400, hence, 200 is just half of the total score. If we begin to lower the cut-off mark below that, what sort of students are we going to be producing?
“Our tertiary education is already being questioned around the globe and we can’t keep lowering the bar to accommodate everyone,” she noted.
Read also: JAMB: Experts canvass investment as 75% candidates score below 200
Similarly, Alaubi expressed worries that JAMB might be forced to lower the admission bar due to the poor result as obtained in the 2025 UTME.
“With this poor result, students must still be admitted, hence the cut-off mark must drop. Why are the students having poor scores? UTME results should be made to represent the true nature of courses registered for by students,” he said.
According to the statistical analysis of the 2025 UTME result published by JAMB on the board’s official X handle JAMBHQ recently, over 77.87 percent (about 1.5 million) of the over 1.95 million candidates that sat the examination scored below 200.
However, Friday Erhabor, director of media and strategies at Marklenez Limited, sees the 22 percent pass rate as okay, considering that it is equivalent to over 439,000 candidates.
“I doubt if JAMB admits up to that number of candidates every year. So, for me, 22 percent scoring above 200 is not bad,” he said.
