2025 JAMB: Results That Exposed Our Values -By Richard Odusanya

Values play a significant role when adopting learning approaches by individuals during their studies. Values are the baseline of the ethical compass and regulate people’s daily behavior. Values establish the ultimate goals one has to achieve and how to get them. Values guide every decision-making process. Values help someone define what is proper, correct, important, beautiful, worthwhile, or desirable.

In essence, the “Results that Exposed our Values” can be interpreted in a few ways, all pointing to how our values are revealed through the outcomes of our actions and experiences. These outcomes can be in our academics, personal, professional, or even societal, and they can be positive or negative. Ultimately, they highlight the importance of our values in shaping how we live and interact with the world.

Unwittingly, the manifestation of our values is seen in our actions, behaviors, and attitudes. It’s also reflected in how we cherish or admire certain values, and in the principles and standards that guide our interactions with others, both individually and within society. Values are manifested in society by the collective actions of people in society.

Essentially, one of the things that plague our society is false value; there are numerous moralistic fault-finders with tremendously laughable superiority complexes based off defeatist attitudes of exalting existing in one’s exploitation or weakness, and parasitic proselytization of communal values.

Following from the above, the recently released JAMB results have generated a lot of hullabaloo for the simple reason that failure is staring us in the face. We are crying wolf where there’s none, because the unfolding scenario is long expected. More than 1.5 million candidates representing about 78 per cent- who sat for the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) scored below 200 out of the 400 obtainable points.

For the avoidance of doubt, this monumental failure in JAMB examinations can be attributed to a combination of factors, including inadequate preparation, poor time management, lack of familiarity with the exam format, and exam anxiety. Technical issues during the exam, such as computer glitches, may have also contributed to lower scores. Additionally, some students may choose to pursue education abroad or in private universities, potentially leading to a calculated failure in the UTME.

In reality however, the previous year 2024 was slightly better. According to the JAMB Registrar, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, 1,402,490 candidates scored below 200 out of the possible 400 marks. That is a whopping 76 percent of the candidates not scoring up to 50 percent of the marks. It has thus become an annual ritual, for the nation to be regaled with the record of performances of candidates who have been compelled to undertake a national examination in order to qualify to be admitted to study in a university.

The million-dollar question:

As parents; school teachers, school owners, examiners, invigilator and the larger society. Where did we get it wrong? Did we all failed?

Let’s examine how we got to this point:

• Is it the deterioration in adequate nutritional balance critical for cognitive capabilities of students?

• Is it the issue of underfunded schools which shows in the structures until roofs caved in.?

• Is it that of hungry and unqualified teachers in our schools?

• Is it that of unsuitable policies in our system?

• So, the critical questions arises, it should spark national conversation. Is this how we are going to raised “tomorrow’s leaders”?

• This is certainly our collective faults if in some years to come our children becomes the engineer who builds collapsing bridges; the doctor who kills patients and the leader who embezzled billions. Definitely, this is not the future we envisioned.

We all need to accept responsibility and act with intention. This is a timely reminder that transforming EDUCATION is not just about policy—it’s about people, purpose, and shared values.

Conclusively, it is worrisome, this is the time to revisit and mitigate the potential failure as we key into the benefits of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR). It is important to begin by prioritizing the aspect of Technical and vocational Education and Training (TVET), which is crucial to the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) as it equips individuals with the practical skills, lifelong learning and knowledge which could become the game-changer and rebuild trust in our education system and prepare our youths for a future with opportunity and innovation. Specifically, ‘TVET’ plays a key role in providing a workforce with the right competencies for the 4IR, in this era of global industrialization.

Finally, as we jointly confront the failed system, the critical question that arises should become our focus instead of rallying on paper qualifications over and above skill development. Because there’s a complex relationship between educational outcomes and the values that shape our society. Therefore, the 2025 JAMB results are more than just statistics—they serve as a mirror reflecting broader systemic issues, ethical dilemmas and social attitudes.

Richard Odusanya