The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, JAMB, has defended mass failure in the 2021 UTME saying that the 2021 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination questions were not set outside the recommended syllabus.
The board, in a statement by its Head of Media and Protocol, Dr. Fabian Benjamin, Tuesday, insisted that “all Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) questions are based on texts prescribed for the UTME in its syllabus.”
It said its clarification was in response to what it described as “half-truth being peddled by some disgruntled candidates, who were ill-prepared for the examination and who, true to all expectations, performed below the expectations of their guardians, that the Board had based its questions on the wrong syllabus.”
The statement, tagged: “UTME Has Its Right Syllabus”, read in full: “The Board ordinarily would not have reacted to the half-truth being peddled by some disgruntled candidates, who were ill-prepared for the examination and who, true to all expectations, performed below the expectations of their guardians, that the Board had based its questions on the wrong syllabus.
“The truth of the matter is that all Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination(UTME)questions are based on texts prescribed for the UTME in its syllabus.
“To ensure that its syllabus is accessible to all candidates sitting its examination, the Board has made the material available on three platforms. The syllabus was issued to candidates through: i The Board’s Integrated Brochure and Syllabus System (IBASS)
- The CD which is given to candidates after completion of registration
iii. The link https://www.ibass.jamb.gov.ng. as provided with the candidates’ profile code.
“It is not automatic that the NECO/WAEC syllabus should transform into JAMB’s otherwise there would not have been a need for a separate syllabus for the UTME.”