JAMB, Veritas Varsity Back Shift To Skills-Based Assessment

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) and Veritas University, Abuja, have backed a shift towards skills-based assessment in university admissions, as the examination body considers introducing critical thinking and life skills into the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).

The JAMB Registrar, Professor Segun Aina, disclosed this when he received a delegation from Veritas University, led by its Vice-Chancellor, Rev Fr Professor Hyacinth Ichoku, at his office.

Aina said the proposed assessment would enable universities to consider candidates’ broader abilities beyond academic performance when making admission decisions.

He commended Veritas University for emphasising skills acquisition among its students, noting that the institution’s approach aligned with JAMB’s vision of incorporating critical thinking and life skills into the UTME.

According to him, JAMB has set up a committee to examine the possibility of introducing the new assessment component as part of efforts to improve the candidate experience and make university admissions more inclusive.

“We have tried to roll out a myriad of initiatives across different facets and different parts of the value chain of the candidate experience. One of the major things we did was to set up a committee to look into the introduction of life skills and critical thinking into UTME,” he said.

The registrar argued that candidates who had already been assessed on subject knowledge at the Ordinary Level might not need to be assessed on the same basis alone for university placement.

He, however, stressed that the proposed reform would require collaboration with universities and other stakeholders.

“We are looking into the possibility of fusing life skills and critical thinking into the UTME examination, and we feel that this sub-component of assessment will be a very valuable tool, particularly for institutions,” Aina said.

He explained that the proposed arrangement could allow universities to consider candidates whose UTME scores fell below the usual cut-off marks if they performed exceptionally well in the critical thinking and life skills component.

“We should be able to find institutions that will say our cut-off for this course is 200, but we will take 190 if you score over 80 per cent in the critical thinking and life skills component of the examination,” he said.

Aina added that some candidates who might not perform exceptionally well academically could still possess other abilities that made them suitable for university education.

“I think we must begin to shift to a direction where we are assessing people based on their all-round capability, not just their academic prowess on the day of assessment,” he said.

The JAMB registrar also disclosed that the board was introducing technology-driven measures to address administrative challenges faced by candidates and graduates, particularly those whose personal details did not match the information on their National Identification Number (NIN) records.

He said some graduates who had been duly admitted through JAMB and completed their university education had been unable to proceed to the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) because of discrepancies between the biodata used during UTME registration and their NIN records.

“There are cases of people who have completed their studies for four or five years and cannot do NYSC because there is a mismatch between the details with which they registered for their JAMB and the details on their NIN, and that stops them from proceeding,” he said.

He urged universities, including Veritas University, to cooperate with JAMB in ensuring that admissions complied with the approved central admissions process, warning that administrative decisions could have lasting consequences for students.

Earlier, Ichoku congratulated Aina on his appointment as JAMB registrar and pledged Veritas University’s cooperation with the board in implementing measures to improve the admission process.

He said the delegation’s visit was intended to welcome the registrar and wish him success in his new national assignment.

The vice-chancellor also informed Aina about the forthcoming Pan-African University Debating Championship, which Veritas University is hosting with the endorsement of the Federal Ministry of Education, and invited him to attend.

Ichoku further said Veritas University students had participated in and won several national and international competitions in sports, debating and technology innovation.