The Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, has attributed the recent mass failure in the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) examinations to the growing success of anti-cheating measures.
He argued that the results reflect the integrity of JAMB’s computer-based testing (CBT) system, which has effectively eliminated cheating, unlike other national exams such as the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) and National Examinations Council (NECO).
Speaking on Channels Television, Alausa described the results as a reflection of a fairer, more secure exam process, now free from systemic fraud.
“JAMB conducts its exams the proper way,” Alausa stated. “They’ve implemented robust security measures that completely eliminate fraud or cheating. Unfortunately, we don’t have the same level of oversight in WAEC and NECO, where malpractices are rampant.” He explained that students who rely on cheating to pass secondary school exams like WAEC and NECO are exposed when they face JAMB’s secure CBT system, leading to the high failure rates observed. “That’s the reflection of what we’re seeing today, and it’s bad,” he added.
Alausa announced ambitious plans to curb examination malpractices across Nigeria’s education system by fully adopting technology. Starting in November 2025, both WAEC and NECO will transition to CBT, phasing out paper-based exams. By 2027, all major qualifying and transitional examinations, including WAEC, NECO, the Examination for Medical and Health-Related Professional Bodies (EMBRAS), and the National Business and Technical Examinations Board (NBTEB), will be conducted exclusively via CBT. “We have to use technology to fight this fraud,” he emphasized, dismissing government-run “numerical centres” as unacceptable due to their association with malpractice.
The minister identified a deep-rooted “cheating ecosystem” involving parents, students, and invigilators as a major challenge. He warned that this culture not only undermines genuine academic effort but also discourages dedicated students. “The most important thing about cheating is that you disincentivize hardworking students,” Alausa said. “If I were a student preparing for WAEC or NECO and realized my colleagues had access to leaked questions, would I bother studying? No, I’d join them.” He stressed that this cycle perpetuates a reliance on shortcuts, eroding the value of knowledge acquisition.
Drawing from his experience as a former teacher in primary and secondary schools, Alausa lamented the pervasive cheating in Nigeria’s high school exam system. “Rampant malpractice is a basic issue in our schools,” he said. “I don’t mind washing our dirty linen in public because that’s how we improve our system.” He asserted that Nigerian children have the “DNA to succeed” but are hindered by an environment that encourages dishonest practices. “Our students have immense potential, but the system pushes them toward shortcuts, and that’s what we must change,” he noted.
Alausa reiterated the ministry’s commitment to breaking the cycle of exam malpractice through zero-tolerance policies and technological advancements. “We’re determined to stop this completely,” he declared. By implementing CBT across all major exams and strengthening oversight, the ministry aims to restore credibility to Nigeria’s education system and ensure that academic success is based on merit.
The minister’s remarks come amid broader discussions about the challenges facing Nigeria’s examination bodies, with JAMB’s CBT system serving as a model for reform. Alausa’s vision for a fully digitized examination process by 2027 signals a significant shift toward leveraging technology to uphold academic integrity and foster a culture of hard work and fairness among Nigerian students.
Meanwhile, In a poignant press briefing on Wednesday, Professor Ishaq Oloyede, Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), broke down in tears while addressing the significant technical failures that plagued the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME). The issues, he confirmed, severely disrupted the integrity of the examination process in the South-East and parts of Lagos.
According to Oloyede, the glitches were due to a critical oversight in JAMB’s server infrastructure. While a crucial system patch meant to enable secure question shuffling and validation was successfully deployed to the Kaduna server cluster, it was unintentionally omitted from the Lagos cluster, which serves Lagos and the South-East. This error went unnoticed through 16 examination sessions and was only rectified by the 17th.
Despite JAMB’s extensive preparations—including a nationwide mock UTME—the combination of technical lapses and sabotage by some internal staff and service providers derailed what the Registrar described as a potentially exemplary examination year.
