Jamb sets new record as 2021 UTME concludes – The join admissions and matriculation board (JAMB) have set a new record in the just concluded Unified tertiary matriculation examinations (UTME) for 2021/2022 academic session, this year’s exam will go down in history as the most poor performance by candidates, Financial Watch can report.
In the 2021 UTME, a new record emerged as most failed exam in the history of the board where there is only 0.06% Of Candidates Scoring 300 Above according to statements credited to the registrar of Jamb Professor Ishaq Oloyede.
A total of 1,338,687 candidates registered for the 2021 UTME, which commenced nationwide from 19th May 2021 and ended on July 3.
The registrar noted that statistics of the results in the last four years, 2018 for example, showed that those who scored 120 and below were about 99.99 per cent of the candidates, 99.92 in 2019, 99.80 in 2020 and this year 99.65, a drop of .25 per cent from that of last year.
He added that those who scored 160 and above, last year was 69.82 per cent, while this year is 45.62 per cent, disclosing further that those who scored more than 300 over 400, last year were .26 per cent of the candidates, this year .06 per cent, and in 2019, .16 per cent of candidates scored above 300.
He said: “I have heard people say that many people failed and JAMB people won’t say that one, that is not so, but it is expected. In Nigeria, we think we are not living within a global community. All informed educated experts know the point at where we are in the academic calendar.
“By last year when they were taking the examination, they had gone far in the coverage of the syllabus, the incomplete session, the emergency online that was put together and many other disturbances, like in Nigeria we have the challenge of insecurity. Somebody should be surprised if there is no effect on the 2021 UTME.
Who Is To Blame, Jamb or candidates?
While many are blaming JAMB for the decline in students’ performance, the board blamed the students for lack of seriousness resulting in the mass failure, just as students are saying that JAMB intentionally failed them.
It is hard to prove the actual cause of the massive failure among youths without proper investigation, but by looking at students’ failure rate, one could attribute the downward trends to many factors.
The topmost of it is the rate at which students spend many hours on social media, which is very disturbing, indeed.
Go to those platforms and see how youth compete with one another on trending issues and useless comments.
If such students can spend a fraction of the number of hours they spend on social media reading their books, they will have a mastery of every subject.
This is aggravated by the excessive desire among most of the youth to watch football be it local competitions or international encounters almost on a daily basis to the detriment of their academic pursuits.
Also, imagine the number of hours teenagers spend every day watching movies on DSTV, StarTimes and other stations. Many of the movies students spend most of their time watching add no academic value to them. It is a thief of time.
Nowadays, the only talents our youths have is music, dancing, acting and stand-up comedy particularly, on social media.
On the part of parents, they buy expensive phones for their children to enable them to access all social media platforms. They subscribe to several stations to keep their wards busy with movies and other uneducated programmes. How many parents have a reading timetable for their children?
Today, many parents who complain of their children’s failure leave home at 6 a.m., depending on where they live, and come back at 11 pm, leaving their children in the care of house-helps and teachers in private schools or neighbours.
Many parents have forgotten that after school, the remaining hours are for them to check their children’s homework, classwork and what they have learned at school.
Parents and guardians should stop blaming JAMB or the government for their wards’ failure. It is all about our fast-changing values and orientation.