Over 70 per cent of candidates scored below 200 as the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, JAMB, released the 2024 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) results.
The Registrar of JAMB, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede announced the release of the results at a press conference held at the board’s headquarters, Bwari, in Abuja on Monday.
Over 1.94 million candidates registered and sat the examination in 118 towns and over 700 centres across the country.
The examination which began on Friday, 19th April ended on Monday, 29th April 2024.
Giving a breakdown of the results, Oloyede said; “Out of a total of 1,989,668 registered candidates, 80,810 were absent. A total of 1,904,189 sat the UTME within the six days of the examination…”.
He said 1,1,402,490, which is 76 per cent of the candidates got below 200. JAMB, however, re-echoed its resolve not to publish the name of the highest-scoring candidate.
“It is common knowledge that the Board has, at various fora, restated its unwillingness to publish the names of its best-performing candidates, as it considers its UTME as only a ranking examination on account of the other parameters that would constitute what would later be considered the minimum admissible score for candidates seeking admission to tertiary institutions,” Oloyede noted.
A further breakdown of the number of candidates who sat for the examination showed that the females were more than males.
The JAMB registrar said 982,393 males representing 49.4 per cent enrolled for the 2024 UTME as against 1,007,275 females which is 50.6 per cent.
Oloyede said “it is evident that there is a significant improvement in the enrolment of females, with over one million girls registering for the examination.
“This is the first time in three years that the number of females will be more than that of their male counterparts.
“Out of the total registration, 3,164 were persons living with disabilities.”
“There is a 36.2% increase in the enrolment of PLWDs as compared to the last year,” the JAMB boss told the gathering
The registrar noted that the examination body withheld the results of 64,624 candidates for possible infractions. He said the board was investigating the withheld results.