The Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, has attributed the widespread failure recorded in the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) to the federal government’s intensified crackdown on examination malpractice.
Speaking during an interview on Channels Television, Alausa insisted that the poor performance of candidates in the latest UTME was not due to a decline in student intelligence, but rather a result of stricter exam protocols that have significantly curbed cheating.
“What you’re seeing is a reflection of exams being done the proper way,” the minister said. “JAMB has put in place so much security that fraud or cheating has been almost completely eliminated.”
Over 1.5 million candidates scored below 200 in the 2025 UTME, triggering public outrage and raising concerns about the competence of Nigeria’s education system.
But Dr. Alausa said the results should be seen as a positive sign of progress in cleaning up a deeply compromised system.
According to him, the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has become a model of credibility through its adoption of Computer-Based Testing (CBT), which he described as nearly cheat-proof.
“JAMB is now a clean exam — almost 100% fraud-free. But the same cannot be said of WAEC and NECO,” Alausa noted.
The minister disclosed that plans are already underway to extend JAMB’s anti-malpractice model to other national examinations.
From November 2025, both the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) and the National Examinations Council (NECO) will begin transitioning to CBT, with full implementation expected by 2027 across all major exams, including EMBRAS and NBTEB.
“We have to use technology to fight this fraud,” he said. “Governmental centres called numerical centres are not acceptable anymore. It’s time for change.”
Alausa lamented the entrenched culture of cheating in the education system, blaming it for demoralizing honest students and creating a generation conditioned to succeed through dishonest means.
“If I were a student and knew others had access to leaked WAEC or NECO questions, would I study hard? No — I would join them,” he said.
He painted a grim picture of a “malpractice ecosystem” involving students, parents, and invigilators.
“This is the mess we are trying to fix,” he said. “We are training our youth to be useful, to deliver value to the country and the world. We cannot afford to keep encouraging dishonesty.”
Dr. Alausa, who has teaching experience from primary to secondary level, said the government is determined to confront the malpractice crisis head-on.
“I don’t mind washing our dirty linen in public, because that is how systems improve,” he declared.
The minister urged stakeholders across the education sector to embrace reforms that promote merit, transparency, and accountability.
“This is not about demonising our young people,” he said. “They have the capacity to excel, but we must give them an environment that rewards integrity.”
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