Labour Party, LP, presidential candidate in the February 25, 2023, poll, Mr. Peter Obi has expressed dismay over the performance of students in year 2024 Joint Admission and Matriculation Board, JAMB, Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination, UTME, noting that it signifies lack of Federal Government attention to the education sector.
He said the Federal Government must prioritise education as a key driver of development by aggressively investing in education, enhancing teacher training programs, and implementing inclusive policies.
Obi in his X handle on Thursday, said: “The recent revelation regarding the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board, JAMB UTME 2024 results and percentages has sparked deep concern about the state of education in our country.
“These statistics paint a troubling picture that demands urgent national attention and discussion.
“The distribution of scores is alarming, with only 0.5 percent of candidates reportedly scoring 300 (75 percent) and above, while a staggering 76 percent scored below 200 (below 50 percent).
“This highlights a systemic issue within our education sector indicating a significant lack of attention to this very critical contributor to national development.
“This brings to limelight an obvious gap in the quality of education provided nationwide.
“Education remains a critical determinant of a nation’s progress on the Human Development Index (HDI).
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“Unfortunately, Nigeria has continued to lag behind in education, reflected by its low HDI ranking of 164 out of the 191 countries measured.
“This places Nigeria far below other comparable nations like Iran, Egypt, Indonesia, Bangladesh and the Philippines which are within medium and high HDI.
“Though we claim as a nation that our literacy rate is above 50 percent, which is far below the global average of about 80 percent and continues to lag behind other comparable countries like Iran, Egypt, Indonesia, Bangladesh and the Philippines with literacy rates of above 70 percent.
“This again, underscores the systemic challenge in access to quality education, particularly in rural areas.
“One of the consequences of the reported general poor performance in UTME is that with our population of over 200 million, Nigeria can only boast of about two million full-time students in different universities, while Iran with a population of over 89 million has over 8.2 million students in one University alone, Islamic Azad University, Bangladesh with a population of about 173 million boasts of over two million enrolled undergraduates in the National University of Bangladesh.
“This underscores the urgency of the attention needed in our education sector.
“In solving this challenge, we must prioritise education as a key driver of development by aggressively investing in education, enhancing teacher training programs, and implementing inclusive policies.
“A new Nigeria is indeed possible,” he added.
