The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board has again raised concerns over the rising wave of examination malpractices, with its Special Committee on Examination Infractions attributing the bulk of fraudulent activities in the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination to parents.
Chairman of the committee, Jake Epelle, was emphatic in his assessment when he declared that parents were responsible for as much as 80 percent of the infractions recorded during the examination.
He disclosed this when he featured as a guest on Monday’s Channels Television’s Politics Today.
The revelation was a follow-up to the committee’s earlier presentation to JAMB Registrar, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede.
He said, “Eighty per cent of these infractions are caused by parents who want to give marks to their children that they don’t deserve.”
The UTME, which serves as the gateway for admissions into Nigerian universities, polytechnics, and colleges of education, has long been plagued by issues of malpractice despite JAMB’s adoption of Computer-Based Test technology.
Over the years, the board has invested heavily in modern security systems to curb impersonation, credential forgery, and other forms of cheating.
But according to Epelle, the 2025 exercise exposed new dimensions of fraud enabled by artificial intelligence and sophisticated syndicates.
He revealed that the committee documented 4,251 cases of “finger blending”—a biometric manipulation scheme—alongside 190 cases of AI-assisted impersonation through image morphing.
In addition, 1,878 false disability claims, multiple National Identification Number registrations, forged credentials, and cases of collusion between candidates and syndicates were uncovered during the examination cycle.
The JAMB committee chair warned that the proliferation of technology-driven malpractice is compounding the challenge of ensuring the credibility of national examinations.
“This is the age of AI, and what is going on is that JAMB rolls out a state-of-the-art technology; there are people behind the scenes, and these are smart young Nigerians.
“The system is robust, but there is a consistent conspiracy to undermine the system”, he said.
He also argued that Nigeria cannot rely on imported solutions alone to safeguard its examinations. Instead, he pushed for locally adaptable innovations.
“Every technology has its own glitches, and that is why I am a proponent of adaptive technology. We need a technology that is adapted within our environment, that speaks to issues that we are going through,” he added.
Punch
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