Case Study 1: Jambiite Esther Abidogun
The Jamb Registrar, Professor Is-haq Oloyede,. cannot just dismiss, arroganty and heartlessly, complaints of candidates and parents including principals & proprietors..He is an exam manager not an Exam Marshal. No matter the perfection Jamb officials felt they put in place, or Oloyede’s self conceitedness of an “all is well exam” his dismissive and abusive attitude to complaints, calling complainants and advocates as jobless and noise makers is unbecoming of a man who presides over the future of millions of our youths and the nation.
Every problem has solution if humbly looked into with human face. 75% failure rate is also a failure of jamb and failure of our education system which does not seem to synchronize standards across boards. Something must be done practically and urgently beyond dismissing our children/youths as “unserious” a routine generation to generation cliche just to escape critically interrogatiing the terrible system that was being passed to the youths.
To always see the wide margin between success rate of WAEC and the failure rate of JAMB as a result of “Miracle Centres” or “Special Centre” or “our youths are not serious” is too simplistic and escapist. I do know like we all know that some schools have become miracle centres or special centres of examination malpractice aided by foolish proprietors, principals, invigillators and parents, but Ihasten to add that the ratio of these exam crime centres is exaggerated. We need to have a serious holistic view of the issue..
If all citizens are not stigmatized as certificate forgers, identity thieves, drug barons, yahoo yahoo or gun runners because few of our rogue political leaders, and traditional rulers are, why should we continue to dismiss our youths as unserious when reviewing mass failure. If they are not serious, it means the system is also not serious. We have a lot of very serious academically brilliant students despite the impeding system. If youths are truly our future, then instead of being dismissive of their acts or errors, we must give them our shoulders collectively to cry on, look critically into their worries with a view of helping out
We can’t be celebrating yearly Jamb mass failure in contrast to a more than average success rate of WAEC conducted WASCE. It’s obvious there’s discordance in standards, curriculum and syllabuses in the whole education system which must be addressed. I have been writing about this incongruence in the educational curriculum for years now. I will continue and we all must not be discouraged
Case Study. 1 : Esther Abidogun
*Would a candidate who has always been the overall best student in her secondary school, who had: 5A1 & 2B3 in WAEC Series CBT Exam in February.
*Did Jamb Mock CBT in April and Scored, Eng: 62, Eco: 72, Gov:74, Mat : 75 with Aggregate of :283 in April 2025
*But now failed with 183 scores in 2025 UTME. Results – ENG: 43, ECO: 55, GOV: 34, MAT: 51, Aggregate: 183?
It looks one kind.. Technical hitch or what?
Parents & guardians should always be truthful and have confidence in the academic brilliance of their outstanding children.
.
When Mr. Abidogun, called me yesterday, he was too confident that his daughter, Esther, cannot fail Jamb because his daughter had never failed any exam before in her life, so she can’t fail Jamb with 183 marks. Never!
I liked his confidence in her teenage daughter who he said had been crying uncontrollably since she checked her result. Crying? This caught my attention because I thought “crying for failing exam” belongs to the past
I requested to speak directly with Esther and interrogated her on her academic brilliance history, exam malpractice involvement, if any in her WASCE CBT, result, the discrepancy in her Jamb mock result and real jamb exam result, her ambition, etc . I gave her courage not to be frustrated in life and should be more determined. Her sharpness, confidence, straightforwardness impressed me a lot. At the end of the telephone conversation, father and daughter concluded that Esther can’t fail JAMB. He’s very ready to push for a review, that it might be due to technical hitches from Jamb..
Lest I forget, Esther sat for her exam at a school center in Ogba, not far from her Akute residence, Kudos to jamb on this. This was unlike a parent we had discussion yesterday who stays in Atan but had to follow his teenage son to Ijebu Ode – Ibefun axis for Jamb exam because there was no more space in their Atan axis. The registration centre he used “luckily” found him a space in Ijebu Ode – Ibefun exam centte.. Of course, Ijebu Ode can’t be regarded as a “free choice” by this candidate like many others who were compelled to take far away exam centres for lack of space in their exam town .
If a general hospital near a sick person”s area in Ikorodu is over populated and no more bed space, we can’t say it’s a free choice for the patient if she ends up in Ikeja General hospital.. That’s a conditional and compulsive choice. Jamb Registrar should take note of this instrad of beating his chest that no candidate was posted outside his/her “chosen centre”. Surpringky, the registrar even offered N1m to anyone who can prove Jamb wrong on this. I laughed.
It’s embarrassing that an examination body of jamb status headed by a reputable professor would be offering money like “Naira Bet” merchant for what a diligent research work on feedback is needed. “.” Jamb Tete Orire” to confirm sincerity of numerous complaints as feedback is ridiculous. It shows there’s too much money in jamb purse as a huge profit making exam institution . It’s good to know that jamb has free money for “lucky dip.” . That’s interesting.
What is to be done?
- I advise jamb to look into all complaints of these young candidates, parents and exam advocates, instead of just dismissing feedback arrogantly. Feedback is a soul of business that any organization must take seriously before discarding the meaningless ones.
- Cases of very brilliant candidates like Esther Abidogun and some others disputing their marks circulatng on social media. Brilliant students do call for review of their scripts when in doubt of their marks in the university system. Jamb candidates deserve such right too. I know “Olodo” dullard candidates won’t do that.
- Days of jamb exam should be extended to accommodate all candidates to write their exam within their “exam towns” of residence to avoid being compelled to choose far away places because of inadequate space.
- Jamb shoukd start its exam by 9am, while candidates report by 7-30am for accredition. There is nothing sacrosanct about 8am that requires candidates to report at centres by 6:30am. A parent living in Sango had to wake up his son by 4am to prepare for their journey to Ilaro Poly for his exam. He had to help 5 candidates and parents stranded at Papa Lanto around 5am.
Such avoidable stress and fear of missing exam kills morale of candidates. It’s not likely most of them would have taken their light breakfast. Security of JAMB candidates must be of paramount importance. No examination is worth the life of any candidate..
Adeola Soetan
Citizenship Civic Awareness Centre
08037207856
.
