The Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) on Monday, the 5th, released the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) results. The results released by the examination body were greeted with concern at best and worst with anger and uproar. According to JAMB, over 1.5 million out of the 1,955,069 candidates who sat for the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination scored below 200. Though disappointing, the result didn’t come as a shock to Nigerians who have watched with dread the desecration of the nation’s education sector over the years.
In the statistical analysis of the 2025 UTME result released by the body, only 420,415 candidates scored above 200 in the 2025 edition of the UTME.
The data showed that 75 per cent of the candidates scored below 200 in the exam, with less than 1% scoring above 300. The analysis does not just underscore the grim reality of our education system, it is also a dispiriting metaphor for the dysfunction and incompetence that envelop virtually every facet of our nation and aspect of our lives.
This year’s worrisome UTME result is not a one-off incident, it’s the outcome of years of criminal neglect of our educational system and a pervasive culture that scoffs at excellence and merit but glorifies criminality and perversion. In fact, according to the data and statistical analysis of UTME result over fifteen years period (2010 to 2025) released by jamb, aside from 2011 when 56% of those who sat for the exam scored below 200, the failure rate for the remaining years under review oscillates between 60% to over 70%, even reaching 85% in 2020.
Since the 2025 UTME results were released on Monday, many analysts and stakeholders have inferred and adduced a plethora of reasons for the disconcerting development. One thing that’s clear from the discourse that the results have spurred is that the appalling performance of these students cannot be attributed to a single factor. The reasons are multifaceted and multifaceted.
The challenges facing our educational system are endemic and systemic. It became so because we wanted it that way. Some have attributed the decline in the performance of students in external exams like UTME to easy access to smartphones and intemperate use and consumption of content on social media. But this is a simplistic way of looking at the situation because the failure rates were high even in years (2010 to 2015) when smartphones were not ubiquitous and social media were still largely at an inchoate level, at least in Nigeria.
No matter how we dissect, analyse and weigh in on the matter, the chunk of the blame for the disturbing state of our educational system will have to go to the government. From making the teaching profession less rewarding and a preserve of those who are looking for an easy route to get by in life, to wittingly or unwittingly encouraging actions and activities that somewhat rubbish the importance of education and its benefits.
In Nigeria, we don’t usually have the best brains and minds in the teaching profession because of how teachers are treated. Grossly underpaid and terribly overworked. Many of the people who opt for college of education and ultimately become teachers who are tasked with inculcating in students the knowledge and information they need in life and to do well in these external examinations lack the needed skill set, intelligence and smartness to do the job because teaching is something that many of these teachers are passionate about but the proverbial low hanging fruit they could lay their hands on to quench hunger.
Another major reason for the drop in academic standard and performance is the staggering erosion of our value system. Time was when people knew that to succeed in life, if you are not wealthy and influential, you’ve to be a straight-A student and above-average. You’ve to be top of your class and pass your examinations in flying colours because education is your surest way to escape financial inadequacy, your one-way ticket out of poverty. But things have changed over the years as people of shady pasts and questionable character rose to the top of the socio-economic and political ladder. People who have been indicted in corrupt practices, successfully prosecuted, convicted and imprisoned, returned to public office in a blaze of glory. Internet fraudsters are being enthroned as monarchs. Drug traffickers and kidnappers are exalted by men of good and get the front seats in houses of worship. Young people see this painful desecration of our agelong societal ethos and the diminishing of our value system. This negative wholesale social reengineering of our society has a devastating and damaging effect on our young people, as it greatly undermines their confidence and trust in education to make it in life. I mean, why would anyone want to go through the rigours of acquiring education with the sole aim of becoming a better person and living a good life when they can achieve all that and more without academic excellence? It’s extremely difficult to toe the path of honour and dignity in a society and culture that not only condone but actively encourage a life of crime and corruption.
One factor that people don’t pay much attention to and tend to fly under the radar when people speak about the worrisome state of our educational system is the impact of the cost of living crisis on young people of school age. There is a nexus between nutrition and cognitive ability. Officially, Nigeria’s inflation rate stands at 24%. However, anyone with even a passing or limited knowledge of how the economy works knows that the official inflation rate is a massively watered-down representation of what is reality. Many economists have conservatively estimated Nigeria’s inflation rate to be between 200% and 250%. This high inflation rate has triggered an unprecedented cost of living crisis. Many people can barely afford to eat twice a day. Children are not shielded from this harsh and brutal reality and economic hardship. Their guardians and parents can no longer cater to the nutritional needs of their children and wards. A crate of eggs, which is the cheapest source of protein and needed by children to boost their immune system and cognitive abilities, now sells for between ₦6000 and ₦7500. Many families can no longer afford other high and rich sources of protein like meat, fish, turkey and chicken. Other classes of food that are rich in fibre and vitamins and enhance children’s physical and mental growth have been priced out of their reach. The lack of a balanced diet and essential nutrients in the meal consumed by children does not not only stunts their growth physically but also impairs their mental and cognitive development. Any nation that seeks to attain an enviable level of economic prosperity and advance in science and technology cannot afford to joke with the nutrition of its younger population.
In conclusion, all hands must be on deck to reverse this unsettling dysfunction that pervades our educational system. We must destroy this ingrained culture that belittles education and extols incompetence and criminality. The change and rebirth must start from the top. Our leaders must lead the charge in tearing down this suffocating wall of mediocrity, backwardness, impunity and underdevelopment and build a citadel of knowledge. To bring about this much-needed change, there must be a housecleaning in the nation’s leadership at all levels of government. One can draw a straight line from the deterioration of the quality of education in the country to the ascension of persons with forged, unverifiable and questionable academic qualifications and certificates to positions of leadership where decisions that affect people’s lives are made. We must find a way to get rid of this motley crowd of self-serving, power-hungry and money-seeking charlatans from power and replace them with altruistic, visionary and progressive people who understand the importance of education to the nation’s building and prioritise it.
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