The Registrar of JAMB, Prof. Segun Aina, disclosed this on Wednesday during an appearance on the Nigerian Television Authority’s Good Morning Nigeria programme.
Aina said the proposed changes were aimed at assessing candidates’ abilities beyond their knowledge of academic subjects, as part of efforts to make the examination more responsive to the demands of higher education.
He explained that UTME scores should not be interpreted solely as a measure of a candidate’s knowledge, noting that the examination was primarily designed to rank candidates based on their performance relative to others.
“It is not how good you are that your JAMB score speaks to. It is more about how you rank against others,” he said.
According to the registrar, the minimum entry score is influenced largely by candidates’ overall performance in a particular examination year.
On the planned reforms, Aina said JAMB was exploring how life skills and critical thinking could be assessed within the UTME framework.
He disclosed that a committee comprising education stakeholders and experts had been constituted to examine the proposal and develop recommendations on its implementation.
The committee is expected to determine whether the competencies should be assessed as separate components of the examination or integrated into existing UTME subjects.
The proposed review forms part of broader efforts to improve the relevance of the examination and ensure that its assessment methods reflect the skills candidates need to succeed in tertiary education.
In a separate development, Aina announced measures introduced by the board to address difficulties candidates face when attempting to update their personal information.
He said candidates who had lost access to the telephone numbers or email addresses used during registration could now update the details through JAMB’s established procedures.
The registrar also announced a National Identification Number (NIN) alignment process to help candidates correct discrepancies in their personal information.
Under the process, candidates can update their details with the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) before aligning the corrected information with their JAMB profiles.
