Dissenting views have continued to trail the methods employed by the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) in the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), and the possible implications it might have on the overall outcome for both students and the institution alike.
A session with a few students saw them share their experiences.
Onyinyechi Ani told us the difficulty she experienced in getting to her Centre, she said she registered in Ikorodu thinking they would post her to Ikorodu, but she was posted to Caleb University, Imota, where she had to wake up early around 5 to begin her journey in order to meet up with the 6.30am paper.
She said some of her friends also experienced the same thing and when they got to the Centre, she was able to converse with some of them who told her they were coming from places like Lekki, Lagos Island, Oshodi etc. and they were posted this far. A certain boy was reportedly in tears because his Centre was changed at the dying minute and therefore, he wasn’t able to take the exam, he will have to come back next year if he really wants to go to school.
Another said some of her friends were involved in an accident on their way to their centre and were badly injured and couldn’t take the exams, she’s appealing to the government to do something about it and hope for improvement from JAMB.
Another report came from Itodo Tochukwu who complained bitterly of how they frustrated him during the exam, he said his computer went off when he started and before they could change him to another system, time was far spent but nevertheless he continued and when it was 4 minutes before submission time, the computer automatically submitted which was wrong and he wasn’t even done with his work and still had about 15 questions unanswered.
Beyond UTME: The Struggles of Students from Admission Hurdles to Job Market Realities
These harrowing experiences and more are what characterized this year’s examination, and to think after all these Stress, gaining admission is not even certain. The system needs to change, in as much as technology is taking over, they should make sure the equipment necessary for the technology is efficient enough too, in order to make life easier for the students.
Those lucky to gain admission, with all the school stress will still face the hurdle of getting a job (That’s a story for another day), because it takes the grace of God to get a good job in Nigeria. You see graduates everyday walking helplessly on the road with their CVs, trying to apply for jobs but they rarely find any after all their hard work and stress from school. This is a call for the government of the country to invest more in education, they should do better than this, rather than being perceived as deliberately frustrating the youths who are leaders of tomorrow.
… story by Juliana Ani
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Ani Juliana, is A 300l student of the University of Nigeria Nsukka,
With the passion for content writing and Copywriting.
