I remember walking into a small public school in Delta State earlier this year. The ceilings were riddled with holes, the floor was bare concrete, and the students—some without shoes—sat huddled on broken desks, straining to hear a tired teacher trying to explain algebra with nothing but a piece of chalk and a fading blackboard. It was there, watching those bright eyes full of untapped potential, that I realized: we are raising a generation that our system has already given up on.
Then came the release of the 2025 JAMB results—and with it, the confirmation of our collective failure. Over 1.5 million candidates, more than 75% of those who sat for the exam, scored below 200 out of 400. That’s not just a low pass rate—it’s a brutal indictment of the state of education in Nigeria. And yet, it feels like just another statistic in a country desensitized to decline.
How did we get here? Is it the overstretched, underpaid teachers who must teach dozens of children with zero resources? Is it the outdated curriculum that bears no relevance to today’s technological and professional realities? Or is it the rot that begins in politics—where education budgets are slashed, contracts for school renovations vanish into private pockets, and leaders send their children abroad while ours rot in collapsed classrooms?
JAMB’s data reveals even deeper concerns. Of the over 40,000 underage candidates allowed to sit for the UTME under a so-called “gifted” category, less than 2% distinguished themselves. We once proudly produced child prodigies and youthful innovators. Today, we are watching that pipeline of promise dry up—choked by neglect, inequality, and hopelessness.
The implications are frightening. We are not merely talking about bad grades; we are talking about a generation that will struggle to compete—not just in Nigeria, but globally. If the majority of our youth can’t meet the average benchmark in a basic standardized test, how do we expect to drive innovation, grow our economy, or fight the brain drain that has already hollowed out our best minds?
JAMB has done its part. They’ve laid bare the numbers. The real question now is: will anything change? Or will government officials issue press statements, commission white papers, and then return to business as usual—while our future quietly collapses?
We are in an education emergency, whether we admit it or not. If we don’t act with urgency—by revamping our schools, retraining our teachers, restoring discipline, and investing in real educational reform—we will wake up one day to find that we have not only failed our children, but we’ve also destroyed any hope of national progress.
Because in the end, it’s not just about test scores. It’s about the soul of a nation—and right now, that soul is in crisis.
