By Joseph Erunke, Abuja
The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, JAMB, has begun a major review of the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination, UTME, with plans to introduce life skills and critical thinking into the nation’s tertiary admission test.
The proposed reform could change how candidates seeking admission into universities, polytechnics and colleges of education are assessed, with greater emphasis on their ability to think, reason and apply knowledge to real-life situations.
JAMB Registrar, Prof. Segun Aina, disclosed this on Tuesday in Abuja while inaugurating a committee of education stakeholders and experts mandated to develop a framework for integrating life skills and critical thinking into the UTME.
Aina said the review had become necessary because UTME was primarily designed to rank candidates who had obtained their O-Level qualifications and should, therefore, avoid merely repeating the subject-based assessments conducted by examination bodies such as the West African Examinations Council, WAEC, and the National Examinations Council, NECO.
He said candidates had already demonstrated their subject knowledge through their secondary school examinations, making it necessary for JAMB to examine whether the UTME could better assess the skills required for success in tertiary education.
“So ours is a ranking task. It’s not necessarily to test your subject matter expertise. So we feel for the UTME examination to be purely subject matter is a duplicity of effort of sorts,” Aina said.
The registrar challenged the committee to determine whether the existing UTME methodology was still capable of accurately predicting candidates’ prospects of success at the tertiary level.
“Are the methods that we are employing to check and predict who will do well in the university or the polytechnic or the college of education, are they still valid? Are they good enough?” he asked.
Aina noted that the basic UTME format had remained largely unchanged for more than three decades, stressing that changing demands in the education system made periodic review necessary.
“The biggest room in the house is the room for improvement. So we want the committee to help us take a look at this,” he said.
He said JAMB deliberately assembled experts and representatives from across the education sector to ensure that the proposed reform reflected broad stakeholder input.
“We cannot be judges in our own matter. So we have assembled a team of stakeholders who are also experts in their own rights to join us in taking a look at this issue, to guide us and to make sure that any decision we take is one that is broadly acceptable to all the stakeholders who will be affected by these decisions,” Aina said.
The committee has been given an initial four weeks to examine the proposal from a conceptual perspective, although the registrar said its tenure could be extended where necessary.
“We will respond to the requests of the committee as they see fit, within reason. But they’ve been given an initial time of four weeks to look into this,” he said.
Alausa seeks fair, transparent assessment
The Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, represented by his Technical Assistant to the Acting Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Education, Mr Oni Adedeji, said the proposed reform was in line with the Federal Government’s broader efforts to transform assessment across the education system.
Alausa charged the committee to develop assessment modalities that would be standardised, fair and transparent while measuring candidates’ analytical, logical and verbal reasoning abilities beyond the recall of subject content.
He said the committee would also determine whether life skills and critical thinking should be assessed through a separate standardised examination or incorporated into the existing UTME subjects.
The minister said the objective was to create an assessment system capable of determining not only what candidates knew but how effectively they could apply knowledge, reason and solve problems.
“I strongly believe getting these rights will shape how Nigeria evaluates readiness for tertiary education now and in years to come,” Alausa said.
He assured the committee of the ministry’s support and collaboration throughout the exercise.
Committee seeks evidence-based reform
Chairman of the committee, Prof. Boniface Nworgu of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, said the effectiveness of UTME should ultimately be assessed by its ability to identify candidates with strong prospects of succeeding in tertiary education.
Nworgu explained that JAMB conducts a selection examination rather than a certificate examination, meaning that the assessment should provide reliable information on candidates’ potential to cope with academic demands at the tertiary level.
“What JAMB is expected to do and what it is doing is to look at those measures that can help us to select the candidates that have the highest promise of succeeding in academic tasks at the tertiary education level,” he said.
He said the validity of UTME needed continuous review because tertiary education curricula and the skills required of students had changed considerably over the years.
According to him, the shift from the Benchmark Minimum Academic Standards, BMAS, to the Core Curriculum and Minimum Academic Standards, CCMAS, has placed greater emphasis on skills acquisition and critical thinking.
“The focus now is the area of skills and then critical thinking. So, what JAMB is trying to do is understandable from that perspective,” Nworgu said.
The committee chairman, however, said its work would not necessarily be restricted to life skills and critical thinking if its deliberations established that other measures could improve the predictive validity of UTME.
“If in the course of our deliberations, we find out that there are other measures that can improve the predictive validity of the UTME, we’re certainly going to make appropriate recommendations,” he said.
Nworgu said the committee would rely on evidence in assessing any proposed changes, insisting that reforms should be measurable and their outcomes capable of being evaluated.
“We are not going to make that mistake in this case,” he said, referring to interventions introduced without establishing a baseline against which their effectiveness could subsequently be measured.
“If we have been using UTME for this number of years and we want to produce a modified UTME, so to speak, there must be evidence at the end of the day that this effort was on time, that we did not waste the taxpayers’ money doing what is beneficial to the society,” he added.
He assured JAMB that the committee would approach the assignment with the objective of producing recommendations capable of strengthening the examination.
The committee comprises representatives from universities, examination bodies, professional regulatory councils, students’ organisations, secondary schools and development agencies.
Members include Prof. Boniface Nworgu, chairman; Prof. M. Yakasai of Bayero University, Kano; Afolabi S. Imoukhuedе; Prof. Idris Mohammed of the Medical and Dental Council; Zakariyau Abdullahi of WAEC; Engr. Prof. Aaron Aboshio of the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria; Dr. Murtala Aliyu Sakwa of the National Board for Technical Education; Prof. Duke Okoro of the Council of Heads of Polytechnics and Colleges of Technology in Nigeria; and Jiya Umar Mohammed of the All Nigerian Conference of Principals of Secondary Schools.
Others are Dr. Chima Egbujuo of the Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council; Dr. Emmanuel Udontre of the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria; Salawudeen Kamorudeen Opeyemi, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Students’ Engagement; Catherine-Onyejeche Ibrahim of the United Nations Development Programme; Dr. Fadipe E. Oladotun of the Veterinary Council of Nigeria; Dr. Alimigbe Frances of the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria; Lawrence B. Aremu of the National Commission for Colleges of Education; and Edidiong Lawrence Moses of the Committee of Vice-Chancellors of Nigeria.
The remaining members are Prof. Raymond Emmanuel of the National Business and Technical Examinations Board; Dr. Clinton of the Nigerian Union of Teachers; Dr. Anthony Idoko of the Pharmacy Council of Nigeria; Akinteye Babatunde Afeez of the National Association of Nigerian Students; Dr. Esa Onoja of the Council of Legal Education; Dr. Esther Mmekа of the National Universities Commission; Dr. Yusuf Abbas Raji of the National Board for Arabic and Islamic Studies; Prof. Babawale T. Bello of the University of Lagos; and Arc. Kayode of the Architects Registration Council of Nigeria.
The committee is expected to submit its initial recommendations within four weeks.
JAMB will consider the recommendations before proceeding, where appropriate, to a further stage involving assessment experts who would develop and implement the details of any framework eventually adopted.
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