Prioritise Education, Obi Tells FG

Presidential candidate of the Labour Party in 2023, Peter Obi, said the recently released JAMB UTME 2024 results underscores the urgent attention the government must pay to the education sector.

He said Nigeria must prioritise education as a key driver of development by aggressively investing in education, enhancing teacher training programs, and implementing inclusive policies.

Citing the result breakdown which showed that 0.5% of candidates reportedly scored 300 (75%) and above, while 76% scored below 200 (below 50%), Obi said the outcome indicated a significant lack of attention to the education sector as a critical contributor to national development.

He added that a consequence of the reported general poor performance in UTME is that Nigeria, with a population of over 200 million, can only boast of about 2 million full-time students in different universities, while Iran with a population of over 89 million has over 8.2 million students in one University alone, Islamic Azad University and Bangladesh with a population of about 173 million boasts of over 2 million enrolled undergraduates in the National University of Bangladesh.

Reacting to the released results on his X handle, Obi said “The recent revelation regarding the JAMB UTME 2024 results and percentages has sparked deep concern about the state of education in our country. These statistics paint a troubling picture that demands urgent national attention and discussion.

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“The distribution of scores is alarming, with only 0.5% of candidates reportedly scoring 300 (75%) and above, while a staggering 76% scored below 200 (below 50%). This highlights a systemic issue within our education sector indicating a significant lack of attention to this

very critical contributor to national development. This brings to limelight an obvious gap in the quality of education provided nationwide. Education remains a critical determinant of a nation’s progress on the Human Development Index (HDI).

“Unfortunately, Nigeria has continued to lag behind in education, reflected by its low HDI ranking of 164 out of the 191 countries measured. This places Nigeria far below other comparable nations like Iran, Egypt, Indonesia, Bangladesh and the Philippines which are within medium and high HDI. Though we claim as a nation that our literacy rate is above 50 percent, which is far below the global average of about 80% and continues to lag behind other comparable countries like Iran, Egypt, Indonesia, Bangladesh and the Philippines with literacy rates of above 70%. This again, underscores the systemic challenge in access to quality education, particularly in rural areas.

“One of the consequences of the reported general poor performance in UTME is that with our population of over 200 million, Nigeria can only boast of about 2 million full-time students in different universities, while Iran with a population of over 89 million has over 8.2 million students in one University alone, Islamic Azad University, Bangladesh with a population of about 173 million boasts of over 2 million enrolled undergraduates in the National University of Bangladesh.”

He said this underscores the urgency of the attention needed in our education sector.

He noted that in solving this challenge, “Nigeria must prioritise education as a key driver of development by aggressively investing in education, enhancing teacher training programs, and implementing inclusive policies.”