Why Nigeria must reconsider JAMB as higher institutions’ entrance exam

Nigeria’s centralised entrance examination for tertiary institutions continues to shape the academic futures of millions of young candidates each year, determining who secures limited admission slots and who is left to explore alternative paths.

While the system is often praised for standardising access and promoting merit, it also highlights deep inequalities, creating clear winners and losers in an intensely competitive process.

Jessica Osuere, chief executive officer at RubiesHub Educational Services, argues that the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB), the umpire board in charge of tertiary institutions’ entrance examination, was created to make university admission fair for everyone, but in reality, it has made the process more stressful.

“Students have to write UTME and post-UTME, which can be difficult for students who don’t have enough resources to prepare well.

“Meanwhile, a child may do well in UTME and perform woefully in post UTME, and vice versa, depending on various circumstances,” she noted.

Osuere believes Nigeria should either allow institutions to conduct their admission examinations or adopt only the UTME for admission into tertiary institutions.

“UTME remains the best option because it is a unified exam and all candidates can compete on a level playing field, unlike when different institutions set their own exams. 

“Besides, WASSCE results can be given more importance. The main goal should be to make admission fair, simple, and truly based on students’ ability,” she said.

Experts believe that the structure and governance of tertiary education admission systems are pivotal to national development goals, particularly in contexts characterised by institutional heterogeneity, demographic pressures, and educational inequality.

In Nigeria, the central mechanism for managing access to tertiary education is the JAMB, established in 1978 by Decree No. 2. This initiative emerged as a policy response to the inefficiencies of the decentralised admission system that prevailed in the immediate post-independence period.

Before the advent of JAMB, individual universities conducted their entrance examinations, resulting in multiple tests, duplication of processes, and discriminatory admission practices based on regional and ethnic biases.

JAMB was intended to centralise admissions, promote meritocracy, reduce inequities, and foster national integration through a standardised admissions process.

The board was to regulate admissions into federal universities, polytechnics and colleges of education, transforming it into a comprehensive admissions body for all tertiary institutions.

Over the years, JAMB introduced significant administrative and technological reforms, such as the Central Admissions Processing System (CAPS), designed to enhance transparency and standardisation

However, the relevance of JAMB as a centralised regulatory body is increasingly contested, but that is not without reason.

Christopher Nmeribe, an educational economist, said that JAMB for some years is guilty of stifling institutional autonomy, creating bureaucratic inefficiencies, and no longer reflects the differentiated needs of tertiary institutions.

“Though JAMB on its own is not evil, evidence shows the way it interacts with Nigeria’s uneven playing field depicts fueling inequality.

“Tertiary education inequality in Nigeria, as fueled by JAMB, manifests in areas such as tech glitches, access to preparatory classes, and what happens during the drive,” he emphasised.

Nubi Achebo, director of academic planning at Nigerian University of Technology and Management (NUTM), said that students unfamiliar with a mouse/keyboard fail UTME despite knowing content, as a result of the digital divide.

 “Students in elite private schools in urban cities such as Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt get CBT training, past question banks, AI tutoring, and private tutorials.

“While rural public-school students hardly get to touch a computer before the UTME. JAMB has been fully CBT since 2013,” he noted.

Financial inequality, JAMB’s UTME form sales for N4,700, post-UTME N2,000 to N10,000, besides transport, and accommodation for exam towns.

Students from poor families often find it difficult to meet these multiple fees associated with getting admission into tertiary institutions.

In the face of all these, JAMB, tertiary institutions, tutorial centres and urban wealthy students are the winners of the centralised tertiary institutions entrance examination.

Achebo emphasised that JAMB’s statutory monopoly and revenues raised from sales of forms are evidence of this claim.

For the universities, sales of post-UTME forms become part of the institution’s IGR stream.

Tutorial centres’ owners recently pushed for an increase in revenue per candidate to help them mitigate the costs of operation. Currently, each centre collects N700 per candidate, and rumours have it that JAMB agents operate some of the CBT centres and ensure such centres have more candidates, because more candidates mean more cash flow.

Besides, JAMB’s multiple-choice questions’ speed system rewards test-taking strategy, not deep knowledge.

On the other hand, rural and poor students are at the losing end, because even if they are intelligent, without digital skills, they will fail, due to clicking wrongly or the system freezing.

The JAMB system rewards access to prep more than ability, hence, fueling mediocrity.

African countries such as South Africa, Ghana, Kenya, Botswana, and Mauritius, among others, have decentralised their tertiary education admission systems, meaning they do not rely on a national entrance examination, such as Nigeria’s JAMB, for admission.

The Ghanaian tertiary education system admits applicants based on their WASSCE (West African Senior School Certificate Examination) results or equivalent qualifications.

  South African universities often use a combination of the National Senior Certificate (school-leaving results) and their own institutional screening methods.

Many universities in South Africa use the National Benchmark Tests (NBTs), which are assessments of academic readiness rather than a traditional “pass/fail” entrance exam.