Breaking: Mass Failure In 2021 UTME

The applicants’ performance in the 2021 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination, UTME, conducted by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, JAMB, was low, with just 168, 613 scoring above 200 out of a total of 400 marks.

A review of the paper provided by the Board during its Policy Meeting in Abuja earlier this week, a copy of which was made available to Vanguard on Thursday, revealed that the results were far from the 404, 740 who scored over 200 out of the 1.9 million who sat for the 2020 exam.

In 2020, a total of 2.11 million people applied for admission to Nigerian higher institutions, with over 300,000 direct entrance applicants who did not need to write the UTME.

This year, 1, 428,208 people applied, with over 300,000 of them being direct entry applicants.

According to JAMB’s analysis of candidate performance in 2021, 168, 613 applicants scored 200 or higher, 64,323 candidates scored 190-199, and 90, 688 candidates scored between 180 and 189.

Others include 117,970 students who scored between 170 and 179 points and 149,421 students who scored between 160 and 169 points.

369,023 candidates had scores in the range of 140 to 159, while 170,816 received scores between 130 and 139.

With JAMB now permitting schools to set their own cut-off points, the bulk of individuals who may be admitted could be those who scored 140 or higher, given that there are over 600,000 seats to be filled.

The schools have yet to finalize their cut-off criteria for 2021 admission.

Even the 2020 admission seats have not been fully filled, with only 551,553 of the 600,000 spaces filled as of August 27, this year.

In actuality, 4,948 individuals scored 300 or higher for 2020 and could still be admitted due to a variety of criteria.

Candidates who applied to read medicine at various colleges were particularly hard affected, with 1,085 candidates who scored over 300 last year being denied admission to read medicine, 4 for Law, 214 for Engineering, 92 for Sciences, 43 for Social Sciences, 13 for Administration, and one for Arts.

Wrong subject combination, non-acceptance of offer, duplication of application, absence during post-UTME screening, and other factors contributed to their inability to gain admission.

The University of Ilorin in Kwara State had 72, 869 students last year and 78, 466 this year, while the Kaduna Polytechnic in Kaduna led at the Polytechnic level for two years and Babcock University in Ilisan Remo, Ogun State, dominated at the private university level for two years.

Oyo State had the most candidates for 2021, with 82,521, followed by Osun with 74, 234 and Ogun with 70,971.