The JAMB Registrar, Is-haq Oloyede, has blamed the coronavirus pandemic for the poor performance of candidates in the just-concluded Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).
While appearing on a live programme on a Nigerian Television Authority’s tagged “Weekend File”, Oloyede confirmed that this year’s UTME results were poorer than those of three years ago.
The registrar said the COVID-19 pandemic affected the smooth running of the academic calendar.
He said 99.65 per cent scored 120 marks and above out of the possible 400 in 2021as against 99.80 per cent in 2020.
Oloyede said, “In 2018, it was 99.99 per cent but in 2019 it dropped to 99.92.
“Also, in 2020, 69.82 per cent of the total candidates who sat the UTME scored 160 and above but in 2021, it reduced to 65.62 per cent.
“But this is expected. In Nigeria, we think we do not live in a global community. All informed education experts understand why it is so. They knew the point at which we were in the academic calendar before the examination was taken in 2020 and in 2021.
“Last year, when they took the examination, they (the students) had gone far in their syllabus. But this year, they suffered incomplete academic sessions; they had to cope with emergency online lessons and even many other disturbances like insecurity.”
Earlier in June, the Board released results of candidates who sat for the 2021 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination.
The board made this known in a statement by its Head of Media, Fabian Benjamin, noting that the results for subsequent days would be released daily.
It directed candidates to check their results by sending UTMERESULT to 55019 through the GSM number used by each candidate to obtain profile code and UTME registration with the board and their results would be sent to them.
The statement read, “The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board has released the results of candidates who sat in more than 720 CBT centres for the 2021 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination conducted between Saturday, June 19 and Tuesday, June 22, 2021.
“Each concerned candidate is advised to check his/her result by sending UTMERESULT to 55019 through the GSM number used by each candidate to obtain profile code and UTME registration with the Board and their results would be relayed to them. Results for subsequent days would be released daily.
“The Board notes with satisfaction that the utilisation of NIN (National Identification Number) has helped in curbing examination malpractices as the 2021 UTME has recorded the least incidence of irregularities since the inception of the CBT examinations in Nigeria.
“Nevertheless, the Board would still review all the CCTV (closed circuit television) footage and other technical gadgets for detection of possible examination misconducts.
“Extremely comparatively few results are being withheld for further investigation.
“In addition, the Board would not hesitate to withdraw the results of any candidate subsequently found to have committed any form of examination misconduct.”
