South East Senators Warn Against A Repeat Of JAMB Glitches

By Suleiman Anyalewechi

The South East Caucus of the Senate on Saturday, May 17, 2025, warned against the future occurrence of the technical glitch, recently, admitted to  by the authorities of the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board, JAMB, during the conduct of this year’s UTME examination.

The 2025 UTME was unprecedentedly characterized by mass failure and general poor performance by candidates.

However, despite the general poor performance recorded across the  country, the South East and Lagos were the most hard hit with the Board earlier in the week owing up to its errors as the major cause of the poor performances of the candidates, as well as other related hiccups that defined the examination this year.

Expectedly, a plethora of public flaks have been trailing the Board’s acceptance of  responsibility for the poor conduct of the  exercise, with not a few impugning some ulterior motives into the debacle.

But in a statement on Saturday issued by its Chairman, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, the South-east caucus of the Senate noted that much as it would not want to join the  bandwagon in  ascribing hidden agendas to the unfortunate development, it nevertheless cautioned against a repeat occurrence in the future.

The caucus while expressing its readiness to remain alert, however strongly demanded a firm assurance from the JAMB authorities that such an ugly development will not repeat itself.

“The so-called glitch, as curious and suspicious as it were, is enough to erode confidence and dangerously lower national pride among the future generation.

“The relevant national education drivers must recognize the inherent danger of injecting hateful politics ,and narrow and parochial considerations into both policy enunciation and its implementations.

“That the glitch happened in the whole of South East raises pertinent questions that must be answered by JAMB to assuage the growing frustrations ,and fears among the people of the region ,particularly the children who are directly at the receiving end.

“We must pursue a Nigerian agenda and not a narrow one that will ultimately injure national unity”, Abaribe noted.

According to the Federal  Legislators, education is one of the  most important pillars of any societal development which must not be toyed with.

“Education is a major pivot that triggers national development. Every child is entitled to it. Therefore, we must not play roulette with it”, the Caucus declared.

While acknowledging and welcoming the open  and timely acceptance of responsibility for the  situation by the Registrar of JAMB Prof Ishaq Oloyede, the caucus, however, expessed the hope that it is not a ploy to mask some sinister plots aimed at undermining the educational attainment of the children of the South East geo-political Zone.