The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) is considering plans to introduce life skills and critical thinking into the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) as part of efforts to broaden the assessment of candidates seeking admission into tertiary institutions.
JAMB Registrar, Prof. Segun Aina, disclosed this on Wednesday during an appearance on the Nigerian Television Authority’s (NTA) Good Morning Nigeria programme, explaining that the proposed reforms would assess candidates beyond their knowledge of academic subjects.
Aina clarified that the UTME score was not necessarily a direct measure of a candidate’s knowledge or academic ability, but rather a tool for ranking candidates against their peers.
“It is not how good you are that your JAMB score speaks to. It is more about how you rank against others,” he said.
He explained that the significance of a candidate’s score depended largely on the overall performance of other candidates in a particular examination cycle.
“If you are in a cohort of JAMB candidates where everybody scores above 300, then 299 will suddenly start to look like a very low score. So, we must put this thing in proper perspective,” the registrar said.
On the proposed reforms, Aina said the board was exploring ways to incorporate life skills and critical thinking into the UTME to make the examination more relevant to the demands of higher education.
He said the proposal formed part of a broader review of the examination framework, with a committee of education stakeholders and experts established to develop recommendations on how the competencies could be assessed.
The committee is also expected to determine whether life skills and critical thinking should be introduced as separate components of the UTME or integrated into existing subject areas.
In a separate development, Aina said JAMB had introduced measures to address difficulties candidates face when updating their personal information, particularly when they lose access to their registered telephone numbers or email addresses.
He explained that candidates could now change their contact details through procedures established by the board.
The registrar also announced a National Identification Number (NIN) alignment process that allows candidates to update their personal information with the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) and subsequently align the records with their JAMB profiles.
“Before, you could not change your name or your date of birth on the JAMB profile,” he said, noting that the new process was designed to assist candidates whose admission prospects had been affected by discrepancies in their personal records.
“Thousands of people were stuck. They completed their degrees; they couldn’t go to university because this wasn’t possible. It is now possible,” he added.
Aina urged candidates to visit JAMB’s official website and social media platforms for more information on the new procedures and other services provided by the board.
