The National Association of Nigerian Students NANS has describes the newly introduced ranking of scores by JAMB as unnecessary, laughable and a misplaced priority..
The Public Relations officer of NANS , Odeyemi Ajasa gave the sweeping remarks ,over the weekend while reacting to the policy statement by the registrar of JAMB, Prof. Ishag Oloyede at the 2025;policy meeting with stakeholders in the tertiary Education sector.held on Tuesday
The meeting provided a platform for sharing insights and exchanging ideas. Far-reaching decisions were made, including the adoption of a minimum admissible benchmark for admission into tertiary institutions in the 2025/2026 academic session, admission deadlines for the 2024/2025 session, 16-year minimum age for admission, new Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) national ranking and others.
However, a new controversy is brewing concerning the UTME ranking, sparking varied interpretations and reactions from Nigerians.
The Board had on Tuesday announced a major policy change that will see the ranking position of each candidate printed on their UTME result slip. According to JAMB Registrar, Prof. Is-haq Oloyede, UTME result slips will now contain a candidate’s actual score and national rank.rof. Oloyede clarified that this new feature will commence with the 1,905,539 candidates who sat for this year’s UTME
Oloyede had said that.The new UTME national ranking system is similar to primary school ranking, where pupils are ranked based on their exam scores.
‘Your chances of getting admitted into a university depend not just on your score, but on how your score compares to others.For context, a student with 360 may be ranked 115th, meaning that 114 other candidates had higher scores. Another student with 200 may rank 546,784th, implying that 546,783 other candidates scored higher.
Why we adopted new ranking system – JAMB
JAMB Spokesperson, Dr. Fabian Benjamin, explained that the new system aims to provide better context to raw scores and help tertiary institutions make more informed admission decisions.
Dr Benjamin argued that by indicating a candidate’s national ranking, tertiary institutions can assess not just the score but the standing of each applicant among their peers.He also expressed concern about parents who run to town with their children’s ‘high scores’ without knowing how they fared compared to their peers.
Dr. Benjamin explained, “It’s by ranking. You rank them according to the number of candidates; from one to the last.” He added, “If you’re 320, maybe you are 400th. And if your school is admitting only 150 for a department, you will know that you stand no chance.”
He likened the system to primary school rankings, where pupils are ranked based on their overall scores. “Certainly, in primary school, candidates are ranked… Where you have 50 students in a class, you are number one out of 50, two out of 50 and so on,” he said.
Reacting, the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), described the move as not only laughable but a misplaced priority.
In a telephone interview with The Guardian, NANS Public Relations Officer, Adeyemi Ajasa, questioned the rationale for initiating the new ranking when candidates still have other hurdles like Post-UTME to cross.
Ajasa, who said he was hearing of the initiative for the first time, expressed doubts about its implementation. His words: “I don’t think this will come to limelight. It might just be part of their plans and things they wish. Even a university that has a smaller number within a department, they don’t do ranking. It’s like grading CGPA as a strong Second Class Upper Division, strong First Class.
“To me, I don’t think that is necessary. I will just urge JAMB to go extra mile, think out of the box, collaborate with other stakeholders and come up with better ideas. Truly, they may be seeing it as a means to ensure that when a student scores 300 does not give automatic admission. But I think there are better ways they can collaborate with institutions”.
The NANS Spokesperson, therefore, called on the examination body to jettison the idea and continue educating parents that having a high score does not necessarily translate to automatic admission
