The mass failure of students in the last 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) administered by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) is still generating furore amongst Nigerians. There have been divergent opinions and emotional responses from all walks of life regarding the technical failure and administrative inadequacies in the conduct of the JAMB examination. A wide range of reports about the JAMB debacle are up in the air in both traditional and social media, with concerns over the authenticity of the information consumed by people in forming public opinions.
In a situation of breaking news, the first things to identify are the subject, object, and author of the report. This includes acknowledging the authenticity of the report before evaluation begins in an attempt to reach a logical opinion. Anyway, that is by virtue of my training—a critical analysis of a subject matter. I am, therefore, presenting my analysis of the JAMB debacle from the way I view things from a coherent perspective.
In my view, the Registrar of JAMB, Professor Ishaq Oloyede, stands out as a tree that cannot make a forest. He tried to reform an underperforming system, but, unfortunately, the system refused to yield to his vision amiss the imperative of system and human factors. I will definitely judge him by his good intention, but not by the unintended consequences of the mass failure of students under his leadership. It is certainly not easy to reform a broken system, which has been undermined by unconventional smart moves by several forces and suddenly expect perfect results. Good results from such reform could take time to reflect positive outcomes, specifically with the compliance of people who want JAMB to deliver acceptable outcomes to the best interest of the public. In general, Nigerians are often seen exhibiting unconventional behaviour towards outsmarting a system for their personal gains, which could, thus, aggravate unintended consequences of a reform or policies.
Accordingly, due to this JAMB debacle, the Nigerian lawmakers are considering investigating the Registrar of JAMB for “excessive spending” of the allocated funds in his office. Investigation for this “excessive spending” should commence in earnest, which I support, until the Registrar is either found guilty or not for the allegation against him. Who is even grossly involved in the “excessive spending” of our commonwealth in Nigeria than these lawmakers who are alleging? How many education bills have they sponsored or passed into law that seem to address the growing menace to the Nigeria’s education system? More broadly, excessive spending should be investigated at the legislative level wherein many of these lawmakers are seen as the quintessence of bad politics in Nigeria, except for a few. The Registrar of JAMB may be investigated for this allegation, but he has conducted JAMB examination in the past, without serious objections to the results.
Although, it has been widely reported and admitted by the Registrar of JAMB that a system error was partly responsible for the mass failure of students in the last JAMB examination, other factors also need to be identified and investigated, requiring solutions to the problems of value change towards education in our society. Perhaps if an angel is assigned to replace the Registrar of JAMB, without addressing other factors that tend to stymy the performance of students, this condemnable incident is very possible to repeat itself. It is, therefore, important to look beyond the system error and adopt a holistic approach towards addressing education problems at the entry level of tertiary education in Nigeria.
In the context of punitive responsibility and accountability, the Registrar of JAMB should not be the only culprit in this system failure in the way he has been called a bad dog to be hanged. This is because JAMB did not deliberately create a bottleneck or red tape, which, if so, there could have been heightened criticisms from informed Nigerians before the conduct of the JAMB examination. A policy or reform can be put into a system test and generate positive intended consequences, but it could also reveal unintended or unexpected negative consequences. With that being stated, it is unfortunate that our children have been badly affected by this system test undertaken by JAMB in the last few years.
For me, the problem with the almighty JAMB of our days in the 1980s and 1990s started with the unregulated proliferation of privately owned universities in Nigeria, and the pressure from these universities and parents to bring down the threshold of JAMB average score of 200 for admission. Since then, the best of the students’ academic performance has declined and students could also naturally reduce their goal-getting academic pursuit to sluggishly secure admission, knowing fully well that if they score below the hitherto 200 average, admission is still guaranteed. To me, there is no logic accepting anything below the 200 average. Parents want university admission for their wards at all costs, regardless of the way it will be possible, whether ethical or unethical. How many parents are interested in ensuring that their wards pass through the rigours of education, without exhibiting helicopter parenting in search of dubious or unmerited favours for their wards. I know of a distinguished professor mentor and teacher at the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU0, Ile-Ife, who would defy all odds to fail his wife for what was reflected in her examination script in a postgraduate course or refuse to interfere in a mark-related matters for his daughter in the same department. This is a display of integrity that is worth emulating by other parents. However, the continuous acceptance of quick-and-quick (QQ) means to an end is undermining our value system towards important things in life.
If I were the Registrar of JAMB, I would throw in the towel, because of this unwholesome system failure and the disparaging condemnation from different people, even from the lay people who are not well-informed about the nuances of the structural-functionalist paradigm of a system. Clearly, JAMB could not have deliberately made the system complex. Everyone knows the reason JAMB has been experimenting with various system upgrades—examination malpractice. Referring to the resignation of the Registrar of JAMB is to relieve him from the mental trauma of coping with the fatal outcomes of a broken system. This is about managing the challenges of compromising human factors within or outside the JAMB structure. A second chance for the Registrar of JAMB could be difficult in restructuring JAMB, considering the Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome (PTSD) he must have suffered from this debacle, which could affect his perfect concentration on the job. The Registrar will seem to perform better if he operates as a Registrar Emeritus within the advisory capacity of the Board
Further, some analysts have argued that the students who failed the JAMB examination and their parents have experienced trauma, due to JAMB inadequacies. In a sincere context, who created this trauma and how do we measure the trauma of these students and parents? In my opinion, an alibi is being invoked for this mass failure, masquerading under the pretext of JAMB inadequacies, when it may be unnecessary for some of these students and their parents to blame JAMB for their own shortcomings. Students who were ill-prepared for the JAMB examination and who could have ordinarily failed, due to personal academic laxity are now tending towards blaming JAMB for their failure. People have been failing JAMB examination before the introduction of the computer-based test (CBT). In secondary schools across Nigeria, students fail their examinations without certain computer-based system inadequacies. To summarise, many private secondary schools in Nigeria are merely window dressing our children for tertiary institutions’ examinations. First, the protection of proprietors’ capitalist gains precedes the students’ education well-being at the secondary school level in Nigeria. There is also no doubt that the eminence of learning amongst our young students has been deeply affected by innovative distractions, specifically when they are badly used.
At the core of this JAMB debacle, all hands must be on deck for a better future for our children. According to John Dewey, “education is not preparation for life; education is life itself.” It is also important to think of Chief Obafemi Awolowo’s revisionist philosophy towards education, which is a good vision for picking up the broken pieces of education landscape in Nigeria.
Hakeem Sule, PhD
Independent researcher and adjunct lecturer,
Department of Public Administration,
Federal University Oye-Ekiti,
Nigeria.
[email protected]
08034387700
