JAMB inaugurates committee to infuse UTME with life skills, critical thinking

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has begun moves to introduce life skills and critical thinking into the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).

Segun Aina, JAMB registrar, inaugurated a committee of education stakeholders and experts on Wednesday at the board’s headquarters in Bwari, Abuja, to develop a framework for integrating the skills into the examination.

Aina said the move was necessary because UTME primarily ranks candidates who already possess O-Level qualifications and should not duplicate the subject-based assessments conducted by the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) and National Examinations Council (NECO).

“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,” he said.

The registrar said JAMB would also examine whether its current methods remain effective in predicting candidates’ performance in universities, polytechnics and colleges of education.

“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 UTME format had remained largely unchanged for more than three decades, saying the board must review its assessment methods in response to changes in the education sector.

“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 the committee was deliberately made up of stakeholders from across the education sector to ensure that any proposed reforms reflected the views of those affected.

Aina said the committee had an initial four weeks to examine the proposal from a conceptual perspective.

Representing Tunji Alausa, minister of education, Oni Adedeji, technical assistant to the acting permanent secretary, said the initiative aligned with the federal government’s broader efforts to reform assessment in the education sector.

He charged the committee to develop standardised, fair and transparent assessment methods capable of measuring analytical, logical and verbal reasoning beyond recall of subject content.

Alausa said the committee would determine whether the proposed components should be assessed separately or embedded in existing UTME subjects.

“I strongly believe getting these rights will shape how Nigeria evaluates readiness for tertiary education now and in years to come,” he said.

Boniface Nworgu, chairman of the committee, said the effectiveness of UTME should be measured by its ability to identify candidates with the strongest prospects of succeeding in tertiary education.

He said changes in university curricula, including the transition from the Benchmark Minimum Academic Standards (BMAS) to the Core Curriculum and Minimum Academic Standards (CCMAS), had increased the emphasis on skills 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.

He said the committee would consider other measures that could improve the predictive validity of UTME and would rely on evidence to assess whether any proposed changes achieved their objectives.

The committee comprises representatives of universities, examination bodies, professional regulatory councils, students’ groups, secondary schools and development organisations.

Members include Nworgu, M. Yakasai, Afolabi S. Imoukhuedе, Idris Mohammed, Zakariyau Abdullahi, Aaron Aboshio, Murtala Aliyu Sakwa, Duke Okoro, Jiya Umar Mohammed, Chima Egbujuo, Emmanuel Udontre, Salawudeen Kamorudeen Opeyemi, Catherine-Onyejeche Ibrahim, Fadipe E. Oladotun, Alimigbe Frances, Lawrence B. Aremu and Edidiong Lawrence Moses.

Others are Raymond Emmanuel, Clinton, Anthony Idoko, Akinteye Babatunde Afeez, Esa Onoja, Esther Mmekа, Yusuf Abbas Raji, Babawale T. Bello and Kayode.

The committee is expected to submit its initial recommendations within four weeks, after which JAMB may engage assessment experts to develop or implement the details of any adopted framework.