JAMB Convenes Stakeholders to Review Underage UTME Candidates
The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has established a special national committee to scrutinise candidates who sat the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).
The 23-member committee, chaired by the Registrar, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, comprises vice-chancellors of Nigerian universities, regulatory agencies, key stakeholders, and specialist experts.
Inaugurated on 6 August 2025, the committee is mandated to propose modalities for determining “specially gifted candidates”.
It is tasked with examining the 599 underage candidates who scored 320 and above in the 2025 UTME.
The committee will set the timelines, outline the procedures, and identify which exceptionally brilliant candidates are suitably qualified to be assessed for admission into tertiary education. Successful candidates will be announced in September 2025.
Prof. Oloyede disclosed that the panel will sit in Lagos, Abuja, and Owerri, assuring the public of the members’ capacity to deliver on their assignment.
He added that the committee will function as a fourth layer of assessment, incorporating affective and psychomotor evaluations to determine candidates’ emotional and psychological readiness.
Prof. Oloyede noted that recognising exceptionally gifted candidates marks a major shift, as they were previously not considered during admission exercises.
A subcommittee of education experts, chaired by the renowned special-education scholar and former Minister of Sports, Prof. Taoheed Adedoja, has been assigned to develop the modalities for the final screening of this group. In contrast, the actual screening will take place in Abuja, Lagos, and Owerri.
The committee’s members include the Vice-Chancellors of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Kaduna State (representing the North-West with five candidates); Covenant University, Ogun State (representing the South-West with 61 candidates); the University of Ilorin, Ilorin, Kwara State (representing the North-Central with 29 candidates); and Modibbo Adama University, Yola, Adamawa State (representing the North-East with one candidate).
Other members are the Vice-Chancellors of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Enugu State (representing the South-East with 25 candidates); the University of Benin, Edo State (representing the South-South with 18 candidates); the Federal University of Technology, Akure, Ondo State (representing specialised institutions with 32 candidates); and Rivers State University, Port Harcourt, Rivers State (representing state universities with 10 candidates).
Further members include the Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission; the Executive Secretary of the National Board for Technical Education; the Executive Secretary of the National Commission for Colleges of Education; the President of the Nigerian Academy of Sciences; the President of the Nigerian Academy of Letters; the President of the Nigerian Academy of Education; the Director of University Education (FME); the Director of Technology and Science Education (FME); and the President of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS).
Also included are Prof. Taoheed Adedoja (specialist), Prof. Boniface Nworgu (specialist), Prof. Asabe Sadiya Mohammed (specialist), the Principal of the Federal Government Academy, Suleja, and the Director of Admissions, JAMB, who will serve as the committee’s Secretary.
