The Labour Party, LP, presidential candidate in the 2023
general elections,Peter Obi, has faulted the scheduling of the 2025 Unified
Tertiary Matriculation Examination, UTME.
This was as he said the early start times are endangering
the lives of young students.
The 2025 UTME started on Thursday,
April 24, 2025, and will end on Monday, May 5, 2025.
The former Anambra State governor, in a strongly worded
statement on Sunday, expressed concern over reports that teenagers, many aged
between 15 and 17, were being required to arrive at UTME centres as early as
6:30 am.
“These are teenagers forced to travel in the dark, often
across dangerous and unfamiliar areas, just to exercise their right to
education,” he said.
The philanthropist described the practice as reckless,
citing reports of students being involved in road accidents, going missing, and
suffering psychological trauma during the examination period.
“Who takes responsibility when a 15- or 16-year-old child
disappears or is harmed while trying to access their right to education?” He
queried.
He also argued that the issue reflects deeper, systemic
problems within Nigeria’s education sector, particularly a lack of adequate
infrastructure.
“Nigeria has just about 200 universities for a population of
over 200 million people. That’s one university for every one million citizens,
a staggering and deeply worrying ratio,” he added.
Obi compared Nigeria’s gross enrollment ratio of around 12
per cent with Indonesia’s 45 per cent, pointing out that the Southeast Asian
country, with a population of 280 million, has over 4,000 tertiary
institutions.
He, therefore, urged the federal government to significantly
increase investment in education.
Obi suggested that even reaching half of Indonesia’s infrastructure,
around 2,000 universities, would improve access and reduce the risk to
students.
He urged a deliberate expansion of Nigeria’s education
system to reflect the country’s growing population and protect the well-being
of future generations.
Responding, the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board,
JAMB, attempted to distinguish between pre-test verification and actual UTME
start times.
Earlier, a teenage girl was reported to have gone missing
during her movement to a UTME centre in Ajah, Lagos.
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