JAMB adds life skills, critical thinking, as registrar clarifies entry score

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) is considering introducing life skills and critical thinking into the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), in a bid to improve how candidates seeking admission into tertiary institutions are assessed.

Segun Aina, the registrar of the board, disclosed this on Wednesday during an appearance on the Good Morning Nigeria programme on the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), saying the proposed changes would measure candidates’ abilities beyond their command of academic subjects.

The proposal forms part of a broader review of the examination framework, with a committee of education stakeholders and experts set up to recommend how the skills could be assessed.

The panel is also expected to determine whether the competencies should be introduced as standalone components or built into existing UTME subjects.

Aina also sought to clear up public misunderstanding about the minimum entry score, stressing that it is not a cutoff mark but the lowest score at which a candidate can be considered for admission.

According to him, the score does not measure how knowledgeable a candidate is, but how the candidate ranks against peers, and it is shaped by the overall performance of the cohort in a given examination cycle.

“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 illustrated the point: “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 further disclosed that the board had introduced measures to ease the difficulties candidates face in updating their personal information.

He said candidates who had lost access to their registered telephone numbers or email addresses could now change them through the board’s procedures.

Aina also announced a National Identification Number (NIN) alignment process, under which candidates update their details with the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) and then align the corrected information 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 help candidates whose admission plans had been derailed by discrepancies in their 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 noted.

He urged candidates to visit JAMB’s official website and social media platforms for more information on the new procedures and other services introduced by the board.