The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, JAMB, is reviewing the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination, UTME, to incorporate life skills, critical thinking, analytical, logical and verbal reasoning into the admission test.
The review is aimed at moving the UTME beyond testing subject knowledge already assessed at O-Level by WAEC and NECO, and making it more relevant to the demands of tertiary education.
JAMB says the review will also determine whether the current UTME format remains an effective predictor of candidates’ ability to succeed in universities, polytechnics and colleges of education.
To this end a committee that will consider whether the new competencies should be assessed separately or embedded in existing UTME subjects has been inaugurated.
The committee has four weeks to submit its initial recommendations. It will also consider other measures that could improve the predictive validity, fairness and transparency of the examination, with assessment experts expected to develop any framework eventually adopted.
NTA NEWS
