Only 20% of UTME candidates will not be admitted – Education Minister

The Minister of Education, Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau, has revealed that over 20 per cent of eligible candidates who sit for the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) conducted by the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) are unable to get admitted into universities.

Shekarau, who was speaking at a news conference to unveil activities marking 2015 Commonwealth Day Celebration, said this was because Nigerian universities had low absorption capacity.

He said that over 1.7 million candidates sit for UTME annually, with only a fraction of them being able to secure admission into the existing universities.

The minister advised admission seekers to embrace the Open and Distance Learning mode and approach the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) for admission.

It will be recalled that data obtained from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed that only 25 per cent of UTME candidates secured admission in 2014.