2025 UTME Outcomes: Confronting the Actuality We Deny
By Oladoja Mark Olamilekan,
If ever there was a time to declare a state of emergency in Nigeria’s schooling sector, it’s now. Not tomorrow. Not subsequent 12 months. Now. As a result of what we’re witnessing is not only a nationwide tragedy. It’s a gradual, deliberate erasure of our future.
The discharge of JAMB’s 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination outcomes left a bitter style within the mouth of each considering Nigerian. Out of over 1.9 million candidates who sat for the examination, solely a meagre 0.5% scored 300 and above.
Barely 24% crossed the 200 mark. The remainder? Scattered within the wilderness of failure, drowning in scores that replicate not simply poor preparation, however a collapsing system. These numbers should not simply statistics — they’re the signs of a nation bleeding from inside.
They’re cries from a technology left unattended, unmentored, and dangerously uncovered to the phantasm that success lies in shortcuts and floor gloss. I used to assume JAMB was the issue. A relic.
An outdated filter clogging the desires of Nigerian youths. However these outcomes have performed greater than humble me — they’ve compelled a sobering confession. JAMB shouldn’t be the enemy. It has change into the mirror we dread: brutally sincere, manifestly clear, and unattainable to interrupt.
In a society affected by counterfeit outcomes, cast certificates, and inflated transcripts, JAMB stays the last-standing referee nonetheless calling foul the place foul actually exists. Some critics have tried to cut back this failure to the 6:30 a.m. examination schedule.
What a lazy excuse. A individuals who as soon as woke earlier than daybreak to fetch water from distant streams now discover waking up for exams too Herculean? College students who can’t adapt to early mornings within the security of CBT centres — how will they survive in the true world?
In hospitals, on oil rigs, in airports, in courtrooms, in boardrooms? The world doesn’t pamper mediocrity. Our ancestors trekked miles to colleges with out sandals. In the present day’s youngsters can barely keep alert after an evening of TikTok, binge streams, and limitless scrolling.
We’re elevating a technology of sleep-deprived digital zombies. This isn’t a JAMB downside. It’s a nationwide character downside. One now we have nurtured with neglect, watered with leisure, and rewarded with silence.
Allow us to be blunt: immediately’s college students should not completely guilty. They’re solely responding to the world we created for them. In that world, affect issues greater than mind, and followers rank greater than formulation.
A society that celebrates in a single day sensations and sidelines tutorial excellence can’t produce Einsteins, Achebes, Soyinkas or Okonjo-Iwealas. In the present day’s youngsters can identify 10 social media influencers however can’t point out 5 Nobel Laureates.
They quote lyrics however can’t full a sentence with out mixing pidgin with profanity. Our kids now not idolize scientists or students. Their function fashions are skit makers, magnificence influencers, and clout chasers.
When mediocrity wears a crown, brilliance hides its face. Once we flip schooling into punishment and make ignorance worthwhile, we shouldn’t be shocked when lecture rooms are empty and levels are full. And we — the adults — should not fake to be harmless.
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We all know concerning the miracle centres the place solutions are whispered earlier than the questions land. We find out about faculty principals who supervise dishonest, and invigilators who acquire brown envelopes in alternate for silence.
We all know WAEC and NECO are breeding confidence in vacancy, issuing credit to those that can barely assemble a sentence. A few of these college students graduate with distinctions however can’t compose a easy e mail or defend a time period paper with out panic.
However JAMB, like a cussed prophet, refuses to hitch the charade. And now, its outcomes are making us uncomfortable. And rightly so — discomfort, in any case, is commonly the start of transformation. What concerning the dwelling entrance?
Many dad and mom have outsourced parenting to smartphones and the web. The exact same dad and mom who as soon as imposed curfews and supervised homework now hand youngsters units with limitless entry to chaos.
Kids as younger as eight are armed with telephones that open the floodgates of distraction and ethical decay. There aren’t any boundaries. No filters. Simply information subscriptions and algorithm-driven parenting.
We used to say it takes a village to boost a baby — now it takes a display screen to smash one. Can we actually blame these youngsters completely when, of their eyes, schooling is gradual, boring, and unrewarding? Their world tells them that foolishness is quick, flashy, and profitable.
If a 22-year-old can construct a mansion from comedy skits and a 19-year-old turns into well-known by twerking on Instagram, what motivation does a classroom present? If society rewards vainness louder than values, why ought to they select the quiet grind of examine?
Nonetheless, the majority of this rot lies with the federal government. A nation that can’t defend its schooling is a nation that has chosen decay. We want pressing reforms — not committee talks, however daring insurance policies. Filters on content material.
Limits on gadget utilization. Curriculum overhaul. Instructing incentives. Huge funding in trainer coaching and infrastructure. Let schooling be handled as a nationwide defence undertaking, not a facet hustle or a line merchandise in funds paperwork.
We have to deglamorize ignorance and rekindle the attract of studying. Let science gala’s obtain the identical consideration as magnificence pageants. Let libraries be renovated with the identical urgency as sports activities stadiums.
Let lecturers earn respect — and a residing wage — worthy of their function as nation builders. If we don’t get up, the tragedy will deepen. A rustic the place youth can’t move exams will quickly wrestle to run hospitals, construct roads, fly planes, or lead something.
We are going to change into a nation of dancers and spectators, clapping for the remainder of the world as they leap forward. We should return worth to studying. We should make schooling stunning once more. Fascinating once more. Sacred once more.
Till that occurs, the perfect of us will maintain fleeing overseas, whereas the remainder stumble at dwelling — mocked by techniques that promised them a future and delivered them failure. Allow us to cease appearing shocked. Allow us to cease pretending.
The JAMB outcomes should not the issue. They’re the proof. The actual failure began way back. It began once we traded chalkboards for ring lights, thinkers for trendsetters, and students for skit makers.
And if nothing is completed — urgently and sincerely — we is not going to simply lose this technology. We are going to bury the very soul of our future.
Oladoja M.O writes from Abuja. He may be reached at: [email protected]
