Following the release of the 2025 UTME performance statistics by the Joint Admissions and Matriculations Board (JAMB), education consultant and president of Isa School of Education, Dr. Joy Isa, has criticised Nigeria’s education system, saying students are being “set up for failure.”
Speaking on News Central’s Jasiri programme, Dr. Isa reacted to JAMB’s statement posted on X, which revealed that “1,534,654 candidates—representing 78.5%—scored below the 200 mark.” The poor performance has sparked widespread concern across the education sector.
Dr. Isa was blunt in her assessment:
“Always have to come back to the government. Change has to happen from the top. We cannot continue to perpetuate this ineptitude.”
She argued that many students were ill-prepared for the computer-based testing environment, which significantly impacted their performance.
“They’ve never used a computer and all of a sudden… high pressure, high stakes, early in the morning, I’ve not had breakfast. Then you put me in front of the machine and I’m wondering, where do I click? Where do I accept?”
She described the system as structurally unsupportive:
“We must support our children and not set them up for failure.”
Dr. Isa also made a passionate appeal to private universities to prioritise teacher education:
“Can we set up departments for education? Everybody’s setting up an engineering department, the medical department… but can you set up an education department for science education, medical education?”
According to her, teacher training is at the heart of improving outcomes:
“So the teachers that come and teach our children are better equipped to do a better job… it’s an appeal, very serious appeal.”
She lamented that many new institutions lack education faculties altogether:
“The more new universities come up, I check. No department for education.”
As Nigeria grapples with the implications of the 2025 UTME results, Dr. Isa’s remarks underscore a deeper crisis in teacher preparation, access to digital tools, and systemic reform in the education sector.
Watch the full interview below.
