The 2024 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examinations (UTME) organised by the Joint Admission Matriculation Board (JAMB) has come and gone, but the outcome of the results is still a point of discussion among stakeholders principally because of the low performance by students who wrote the examination.

From April 19 to 29, 2024, over 1.9 million candidates wrote the computer-based examination in their bid to secure admission into higher institutions in the country.

A total of 1,989,668 candidates registered for the examination, 24.7 per cent higher than the figure for the year 2023. Of the 1,989,668 registered, 1,904,189 were present and verified; 2,899 were present but unverified; 80,810 were absent. And the 1, 904, 189 sat the UTME within the six days of the examination.

The results of 1, 842, 464 candidates were released while 26, 929 results were still under investigation for various reasons with only 78 cases of examination misconduct recorded in the just-concluded exercise.

However, the announcement of the results had triggered a myriad of reactions from stakeholders who described the failure rate as alarming. While some blamed the examination body and CBT centres for the poor showing, others, however, put the blame on parents for failing to monitor their wards, and government for not adequately funding education over the years.

Parents and stakeholders blamed some CBT centres for the glitches recorded during the exams, which affected candidates’ performance, and accused the examination body of not doing its due diligence before accrediting and certifying them okay for use.

They specifically lamented cases of failed computer systems, power outages, inability to authenticate biometrics, and poor connectivity, among others. While the examination was on, reports emerged that some centres had faulty computers, while some of the candidates could not get their registration numbers and thump prints verified.

Others had problems with the 7am examination time, considering the age of applicants and rampaging insecurity in the country. For instance, at Batmod Hub centre, Ota-Ijoko, Ogun State, for two days, candidates for three sets, namely 7am; 9am and 12 noon, could not sit for exams due to network issues.

After waiting for over eight hours, JAMB officials on duty assured the affected candidates that they would be rescheduled.However, one of the candidates, who identified herself as Tobiloba, lamented that she was declared absent after waiting for JAMB to contact her for a reschedule as pledged, which never happened.

“I was at my centre around 5:55am for the 7:00 am exam. I did a thumbprint, even twice for biometrics before I was passed into the examination hall, but we couldn’t do the exam because of network,” she explained.

A mother, Gladys Nwosisi, said considering the age of most candidates involved in UTME, starting the examination too early exposed them to danger, bearing in mind that some had to leave their homes as early as 4am to meet up.

At Success Academy, Ikotun, a sister to one of the candidates, who identified herself as Nancy, said the computers were not working properly, hence candidates for the first set (7 am) were not able to sit for the exam. The second set (9 am) as at 11.30am couldn’t sit for the exam due to the same reason.

Sharing her son’s experience, one of the parents, Lucy Uchenna, said midway into Chemistry examination at Ejigbo area of Lagos, his son’s system went off and it never came on.

In spite of some of the reported hiccups recorded in the conduct of the examination, of the 774 centres used for the UTME, only one totally failed during the UTME.

Worthy of mentioning also is that there is a significant improvement in the enrolment of females, with over 1 million girls registering for the examination. This is the first time in three years that the number of females that participated in the examination will be more than that of their male counterparts.

Similarly, out of the total registration, 3,164 were of Persons Living With Disabilities (PLWDs), which is a 36.2 per cent increase in the enrolment of PLWDs as compared to the last year, with 2323 candidates. In 2022, only 2293 PLWDs participated in the exams.

Although JAMB praised itself about conduct of the examination when its Registrar, Professor Ishaq Oloyede stated that the successes recorded, particularly in terms of reduced infractions, show that the Board’s processes are getting better with each successive exercise.

But an analysis of the result showed that 76 per cent of the candidates that wrote the examination scored between 200, while only 0.5 per cent of the pupils that participated in the examination scored 300 and above.

With some of the stakeholders blaming the examination body for why some candidates performed below average. They claimed that the allocation of examination centres was marred by inefficiency and negligence, with many students assigned to centres far from their locations, if not outside where they live. Also, the stakeholders also pointed to cases of technical glitches and malfunction at several examination centres exacerbating the pains of candidates.

But available data showed that only 95 of the 774 centres experienced hiccups which disrupted only 150 of the total 9, 156 sessions. And Oloyede said that the affected sessions were promptly rescheduled, with only one centre, Makama School of Technology, Old Motor Park, Along FCCE (T) Road, Bichi, Kano State, was delisted for substandard performance.

He added that “At the point of registration, only 373 candidates were clearly certified to have their fingerprints exempted from verification and were to be subjected to further scrutiny. The Board, therefore, finds it strange to still have cases of unverified candidates.

“Hence, the first thing that comes to mind when a candidate fails biometric screening after recording success during registration and was even able to print his notification slip afterwards, is that this might likely be a case of impersonation.”

But in the breakdown provided by JAMB’s Registrar, only 8,401 candidates of the 1,989,668 that registered for the examination scored 300 and above, while 77,070, accounting for 4.2 per cent scored 250 and above. Oloyede also stated that 439,974 of the students, who wrote the examination, which is 24 per cent, got 200 and above, while 1,402,490 students, about 76 per cent of the participants scored below 200.

Although many stakeholders are worried because of the poor performance by the majority of the students that participated in the examination, but the results showed a slightly better performance compared with result of the last two years.

Last year, only 0.3 per cent of the candidates, which translated to 5311 students, scored 300 and above, while 56649 pupils got 250 and above, which was 3.7 per cent of the participants.

Also, only 355,179 candidates, accounting for 23 per cent of those who registered for the examination scored 200 and above, while about 77 per cent of those who participated in the examination in 2023, 1,164893 scored below 200.

Of note is that the 2023 results were better compared to that of the 2022, even though just slightly. The data provided by JAMB revealed that 78 per cent of the students, 1323631, who participated in the examination scored below 200, while only 0.33 per cent, 5833 students got 300 and above, just as only 3.71 per cent, 65327 candidates that got 250 and above. Also, 22 per cent of the participants in the 2022 UTME, 385757, scored 200 and above.

Oloyede stated that the 2024 UTME recorded a significant adherence to the rule mandating parents/guardians to stay away from the premises of the examination centres except in one centre: Destiny CBT Centre, Ayobo, Lagos State, where some parents, constituted themselves into a nuisance.

“It would be noted that the Board, in one of its recent publications, recognised desperate parents as the unconscionable actors keeping the examination malpractice industry afloat. This is owing to the fact that they frustrate all instructions that are aimed at guiding their wards towards becoming the leaders that the nation desires.

“Also, even when the Board prescribes appropriate registration fees and prohibits group registration, which many elite schools are guilty of, they ensure that these schools do not adhere to these guidelines as they pay tens of thousands of naira for a registration that is less than ten thousand naira, indulged in group registration and where there are issues, they placed the blame squarely on the Board.

“Therefore, undue parental intrusion remains one of the challenges being encountered by the Board in the course of performing its statutory roles. These parents, in their desperate bid to ensure their children pass at all cost, are always hell-bent on accompanying their wards to examination centres, even as far as into the examination hall in some instances, and any resistance by the officials at the centre sometimes leads to assault on such hapless examination officials.

“Interestingly, this unwholesome predilection by these parents, especially on account of their perception and attitudes towards examination infractions, could rub off on their children. The parents involved in the Lagos and one in National Headquarters, Abuja had constituted a cog in the wheel of progress of their children.

“Furthermore, henceforth any candidate whose data are found with any of the arrested fraudsters with proof of being supplied by the candidate or his/her parent would be treated as an accomplice to the crime and thus be sanctioned and prosecuted.

“This is because candidates, whose parents see nothing wrong in cheating, develop a disposition for cheating as well. It could also be said that this desperation exhibited by these set of parents could be attributed to their desire to add their children’s profiles to their own as they craved such titles as parents of medical doctors, lawyers, engineers, etc.

“Hence, they would go to any length, whether legal or otherwise to compromise the process even to the extent of procuring underhand admission for their children, sending their underage children to early-childhood schools, registering them for First School Leaving Certificate Examination in Primary Five as against Primary Six, as well as hurrying them to take the Senior School Certificate Examination at SS2 or age 14.

“Furthermore, it is to be noted that a reasonable number of the Board’s challenges, be it data mutilation or examination infractions, are connected with the undue interference of parents. Meanwhile, many parents, also against our rules, pay exorbitant rates to their children’s schools in the name of JAMB registration for illicit ends.

“The Board will continue to appeal to parents to see the Board as a worthy partner in moulding their wards and should, therefore, trust in the Board’s judgment. The intruding attitude of parents has, in some cases, led to candidates even missing their examinations, some on account of group registration and others, to contrary instructions from conniving parents,” Oloyede stated.