IN a concerning trend for Nigeria’s education sector, recent data show that the majority of candidates sitting for the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) from 2020 to 2025 scored below the 200-mark threshold.

This raises fresh concerns about the preparedness of students seeking admission into tertiary institutions.

According to figures compiled and visualised by The ICIR, the proportion of UTME candidates scoring below 200 has remained alarmingly high over the past six years, peaking in 2021 at 87.2 per cent. That year, over 1.14 million candidates failed to meet the benchmark.

Other years reflected similarly troubling figures.

The data suggests that despite slight improvements in 2023 and 2024, a substantial majority of students continue to underperform in the UTME.

The UTME data for candidates who scored below 200 are:

2020 – 79.2 per cent (1.54m)

2021 – 87.2 per cent (1.14m)

2022 – 78.1 per cent (1.38m)

2023 – 76.7 per cent (1.17m)

2024 – 76.1 per cent (1.40m)

2025 – 78.5 per cent (1.53m)

The 2025 data referenced here was before the resit done in parts of Lagos and south east sates.

In contrast, the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) paints a more encouraging picture. From 2020 to 2024, the percentage of candidates who obtained five credits – including Mathematics and English – was consistently above 70 per cent, except in 2020.

The data of WASSCE that shows candidates passing with five credits including maths and english:

2020 – 65.2 per cent (1.0m)

2021 – 81.7 per cent (1.27m)

2022 – 76.4 per cent (1.22m)

2023 -79.8 per cent  (1.29m)

2024 – 72.1 per cent (1.30m)

The disparity between WASSCE and UTME results has reignited debates among education stakeholders about the alignment of secondary school curricula with the demands of university entrance exams.

Meanwhile, both examinations continue to face challenges. The ICIR reported how students wrote WASSCE with torch lights at night and how students were kept in examination halls till midnight after a paper they were supposed to write leaked.

Similarly, this organisation published a report on some of the scandals that have rocked JAMB in recent years.

Just this year, a glitch in JAMB’s system forced 336,845 candidates to resit UTME.

The ICIR reported that the glitch led to a candidate committing suicide in Lagos State after she obtained a low mark.