Education

UTME candidates need support not blame, psychologists tell parents

Published

1 year ago

May 25, 2025

UTME candidates need support not blame, psychologists tell parents

Seasoned mental health professionals have stated that students affected by the glitches and mass failure in the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination need counselling support and reassurance, not blame.

They noted that the situation experienced during the exams and with the results have left many students devastated, with some expressing feelings of hopelessness and failure.

They warned that without timely psychological intervention, some candidates could spiral into depression or suicidal ideation, as witnessed in a recent tragic case involving a teenage girl who reportedly took her life after receiving poor UTME results.

The psychologists further called for a comprehensive review of the current exam system in Nigeria, stating how a lack of systemic support, poorly structured exam schedules, digitalisation challenges, and insufficient parental involvement have created overwhelming stress for students.

In separate interviews with PUNCH Healthwise, the experts criticised the rushed exam resit timelines, poor digital infrastructure and logistics, and a lack of support systems that leave students vulnerable, asserting that the students should not be blamed for the glitches.

The psychologists advocated a more empathetic, data-driven, and streamlined approach to exam administration, along with greater psychological support for students.

The UTME is a critical prerequisite for admission into tertiary institutions in Nigeria. It tests candidates in four subjects, including the compulsory Use of English, with the other three drawn from their proposed field of study.

PUNCH Healthwise reports that the 2025 UTME, which took place from April 24th to May 5th, 2025, and the results were released on May 9.

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The result showed that 1.5 million candidates who sat for the exam scored below 200 out of the maximum 400 marks, indicating a dismal pass rate.

Following widespread complaints from students, teachers, school administrators, and parents, the Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, Prof Ishaq Oloyede, admitted that technical glitches had affected the scores of some candidates in the just-concluded UTME.

The mass failure has sparked blame from many parents, guardians, and educationists, some of whom accused students of underperforming due to excessive time spent on social media and overreliance on artificial intelligence tools for learning.

Commenting on the matter, a Clinical Psychologist at the Department of Psychiatry, Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Idi-Araba, Juliet Ottoh, stated that students whose results were affected by the glitch should not be blamed for the system failure.

She stated that such students needed supportive psychotherapy to ensure they understood that the fault was not theirs and prevent them from dealing with emotional trauma that could lead to long-term mental health consequences.

Ottoh further noted that due to the large number of students affected many of the students may not be able to get professional counselling therapy, urging parents, guardians and teachers to provide such services to prevent the students from feeling disappointed in themselves.

The psychiatrist also stated that the country still lacked adequate technological infrastructures that would ensure the smooth conduct of examinations online.

She said, “If we can upgrade our system to ensure we get it right and the system is not to blame for any errors or failures, that would be better. But I don’t think we’ve gotten to that point where external examinations should entirely be placed on CBT.”

Ottoh called on JAMB to ensure better preparedness and reassure the public that better measures would be put in place to prevent a recurrence of the last exam.

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The clinical psychologist advised students and parents, “What we don’t have control over, we don’t have power over it. What they have power over is to study and go for the exam.

“If there are glitches in the system, they don’t have the power to regulate it. So, they should just put in their best, study, prepare for the exam, and let’s see what the system has in place for them. Parents should support their children, JAMB should improve on their technology.”

For her part, a Developmental Child Psychologist & Clinical Director at Nuture Child Development Clinic, Mabel Okereafor, stated that preparing and passing a major examination like UTME was like a major life event that could make one anxious and stressed.

She noted that the pressure from parents, peers and school further increased the desire to succeed and move to the next level.

The developmental child psychologist, however, noted that factors such as inadequate preparation, lack of proper sleep and support system, loss of appetite, poor self-esteem and the distance to the examination venues could affect such students’ performances.

Okereafor said, “So as a nation, I think we can do better in terms of streamlining the process. Before you want to go digital, the process itself should be streamlined. Why should the child have to leave their state of residence to go and write exams in a far place and put their lives at risk, being disconnected from family and all of those things? I don’t think that’s being properly thought out.

“I would expect that digitalising the platform is one of those instruments and strategies that we may be looking at to minimise such occurrences. Then we’re talking about glitches and all of those things happening. We need to re-evaluate that process and see how we can streamline it. When we streamline that process, we get the children to write the exams in their environments. If we say we want to go digital, it can be done.

“So as a nation, if we are serious about these things and we want children to do well, the timelines, the structure, the support system that we have put in place for children to do exams and to succeed in those exams, I don’t think we’ve done that.”

She urged parents to provide support and build the resilience of their children during examination periods.

“As parents, we need to begin to look at how to build their resilience, how to help children understand that exams are not an end in themselves, that even when you fail an exam, your life must not end.

“As families, as parents, as school counsellors, we need to always reiterate those things and step back on that pressure that we put on children and make them feel like once they fail an exam, that’s the end of the world. So children need to hear that frequently,” the child psychologist said.

She also advised parents to provide psychological therapy for children susceptible to anxiety, depression or suicide for failing an examination, explaining that such children needed extra counselling and support.

UTME candidates need support not blame, psychologists tell parents

Related Topics:candidates parents psychologists UTME

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Education

University Funding Crisis: States Beg FG to Take Over Cash-Strapped Institutions

Published

3 days ago

November 7, 2026

Trends Admin

Minister of Education, Dr. Maruf Tunji Alausa

University Funding Crisis: States Beg FG to Take Over Cash-Strapped Institutions

Some state governments have appealed to the Federal Government to take over their universities amid mounting financial difficulties and growing concerns about their ability to sustain the institutions.

The Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, disclosed this in a memorandum addressed to Senate President Godswill Akpabio on November 2, 2026, while seeking legislative support for a seven-year moratorium on the establishment of new federal universities, polytechnics and colleges of education.

According to the minister, some state governments have approached the Federal Government because they can no longer adequately meet the financial and administrative responsibilities associated with running their universities.

Although Alausa did not identify the states involved or disclose the number of institutions affected, he cited the experiences of Ekiti and Imo states as examples of the difficulties associated with establishing and maintaining multiple tertiary institutions without sustainable funding arrangements.

The disclosure comes amid growing concerns over the financial sustainability of public universities in Nigeria, recurring industrial disputes involving university lecturers, deteriorating infrastructure and demands for improved staff welfare.

Alausa argued that the country’s immediate priority should be strengthening existing institutions rather than continuously establishing new ones without adequate financial provisions.

He warned that expanding the number of universities without addressing their funding challenges could further weaken the quality of tertiary education and undermine academic standards.

The minister also highlighted the Federal Government’s outstanding financial commitments to the revitalisation of public universities.

According to the memorandum, under the 2013–2018 Federal Government agreement with the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), the government committed ₦1.3 trillion to university revitalisation.

However, only ₦250 billion was released between 2013 and 2021, representing less than 20 per cent of the original commitment.

Alausa further disclosed that of the additional ₦150 billion approved in 2025 for the Needs Assessment Intervention, only ₦50 billion was initially released.

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He said the funding gaps demonstrated the difficulty of meeting existing obligations and raised questions about the government’s capacity to sustain additional institutions without guaranteed budgetary provisions.

The minister identified inadequate lecture halls, overcrowded classrooms, insufficient laboratories, shortages of qualified lecturers, accommodation deficits and deteriorating facilities as some of the major challenges confronting public tertiary institutions.

He maintained that spreading limited resources across more universities without addressing existing deficiencies could further weaken the sector.

Alausa also recalled that Ekiti State consolidated three state-owned universities into a single institution, Ekiti State University, Ado-Ekiti, in 2011.

He cited institutional reviews and integration exercises undertaken by Imo State following the establishment of several tertiary institutions under previous administrations.

According to him, these experiences demonstrate the risks of establishing universities without proper feasibility studies and sustainable funding arrangements.

He warned that institutions created without adequate financial planning could eventually become liabilities for successive administrations, forcing governments to undertake costly mergers, restructuring or closures.

The minister also referenced international examples, including Australia, Finland, Japan, the United States and South Africa, where institutional mergers and consolidation have been used to address funding constraints, duplicated academic programmes and administrative inefficiencies.

He argued that Nigeria could adopt similar measures to improve governance, strengthen research capacity and ensure more efficient utilisation of available resources.

Beyond the requests for federal takeovers, Alausa urged the National Assembly to support a seven-year moratorium on establishing new federal tertiary institutions.

He said the Federal Executive Council (FEC) had approved the moratorium at its meeting on August 13, 2025, as part of efforts to address the proliferation of public tertiary institutions.

However, the minister expressed concern that lawmakers were still considering bills seeking to establish additional institutions despite the policy.

He acknowledged the constitutional powers of the National Assembly to initiate and pass legislation but urged lawmakers to consider national education priorities, demonstrable needs and the financial implications of establishing new institutions.

Alausa stressed that setting up a university involved more than passing an enabling law, as it required land acquisition, take-off grants, infrastructure, recruitment of academic and non-academic personnel, equipment, utilities and recurrent expenditure.

He warned that institutions established without credible long-term funding arrangements could exist only on paper, without the resources required to deliver quality education.

The minister clarified that the proposed seven-year moratorium was not intended to permanently deny Nigerians access to tertiary education or prevent future expansion where compelling national needs existed.

Rather, he said the measure would allow the government to consolidate existing investments, improve academic standards and address infrastructure and staffing deficiencies.

The development comes against the backdrop of recurring industrial disputes between state governments and university lecturers over salaries, allowances, earned academic benefits and the implementation of agreements with ASUU.

The union has consistently maintained that state governments must honour applicable agreements with lecturers in their institutions rather than rely solely on commitments made by the Federal Government.

The disputes have disrupted academic activities in some institutions and raised questions about the ability of certain state governments to provide stable funding for university education.

Meanwhile, the Federal Government announced on October 25, 2026, that it had disbursed ₦38.93 billion to 166 public tertiary institutions under the Needs Assessment Revitalisation Fund.

The allocation covered 79 universities, 46 polytechnics and 41 colleges of education, with the money earmarked for approved infrastructure and teaching-related projects.

Despite the intervention, Alausa’s latest memorandum suggests that substantial funding and infrastructure challenges remain across Nigeria’s tertiary education sector.

The minister appealed to Senate President Akpabio, Senate Majority Leader Michael Opeyemi Bamidele and other lawmakers to support the proposed moratorium.

He maintained that the success of Nigeria’s education system should be measured by the quality of its institutions, teaching, research and graduates rather than simply the number of universities established.

University Funding Crisis: States Beg FG to Take Over Cash-Strapped Institutions

Education

NELFUND Introduces Token System to Stop Double Payment of School Fees

Published

2 weeks ago

October 28, 2026

Trends Admin

NELFUND Warns Schools: Student Loans Are Voluntary, Not Compulsory

NELFUND Introduces Token System to Stop Double Payment of School Fees

The Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) has begun piloting a new token-based payment system designed to prevent students from paying their school fees twice and reduce complications associated with refunds.

The Managing Director of NELFUND, Akintunde Sawyerr, disclosed this on Wednesday, October 28, 2026, during a press briefing, explaining that the proposed arrangement would give beneficiaries greater control over the payment of their approved institutional fees.

Under the new system, students will be able to authorise payments directly to their respective institutions through a digital token linked to their schools, rather than having to rely solely on notifications after payments have been made.

The development comes as NELFUND continues to process applications under the Federal Government’s student loan scheme, with the agency reporting nearly 400,000 applications at the time of the briefing.

Sawyerr said the initiative was introduced to address situations in which students unknowingly paid fees that NELFUND had already settled on their behalf, resulting in duplicate payments and subsequent demands for refunds.

He explained that delays in communicating completed transactions had created confusion among beneficiaries, particularly those facing registration deadlines and other academic requirements.

According to him, a student might pay school fees independently because they had not been informed that NELFUND had already transferred the approved amount to their institution.

The student could subsequently discover that the fund had settled the same bill, leaving them to seek a refund from the institution.

Sawyerr described such incidents as genuine mistakes arising from communication gaps rather than deliberate wrongdoing.

The NELFUND chief executive said the new arrangement was intended to eliminate the problem by allowing students to initiate payments themselves once their approved funds were ready.

“We want to eliminate that need for refunds. So we’re placing the power of payment in the hands of the students,” he said.

How NELFUND’s New Token Payment System Will Work

Under the proposed arrangement, beneficiaries will receive notifications when their approved school fees are ready for payment. They will then be able to use an application on their mobile phones to authorise the transaction.

Once authorised, the funds will be transferred directly to the designated institution, with the token restricted to the school for which the payment was approved.

NELFUND said the arrangement would prevent students from transferring the approved tuition funds into their personal bank accounts or redirecting the money to another institution.

Sawyerr stressed that the system was not designed to hand cash directly to beneficiaries but to give them control over initiating payments while ensuring that the funds remained dedicated to their intended purpose.

“We’re not giving the students money, but we’re giving them power,” he said.

To illustrate how the arrangement would operate, he explained that a student with an approved institutional payment of ₦200,000 would only be able to authorise payment to the designated school’s account.

The money would not move until the student initiated the transaction, according to the explanation provided during the briefing.

NELFUND’s Executive Director, Mustapha Iyal, also clarified that the token should not be confused with a personal wallet or a mobile money account.

He explained that the token would be linked to a specific institution and would serve as a payment authorisation mechanism rather than an account from which beneficiaries could freely withdraw or transfer funds.

The restriction is intended to reduce the risk of misdirected payments while improving accountability in the administration of the student loan scheme.

NELFUND Reports Nearly 400,000 Applications

Iyal confirmed that the pilot phase of the tokenised payment system had commenced, disclosing that the fund had received close to 400,000 applications at the time of the briefing.

However, the figure represents applications received and should not be interpreted as the number of students whose payments have already been processed through the new system.

The officials did not announce a specific date for the full implementation of the token-based arrangement.

The pilot is expected to help the fund assess how the new payment process can improve coordination among beneficiaries, tertiary institutions and the agency.

For students, the effectiveness of the system will depend on timely notifications, accurate records of approved fees and efficient confirmation of payments by their institutions.

These measures will be particularly important for students who must meet school-fee deadlines to complete registration or participate in academic activities.

What the New System Means for Students

The proposed payment arrangement could reduce the uncertainty faced by beneficiaries who are unsure whether NELFUND has paid their school fees.

By allowing students to authorise transactions after receiving notification that their approved funds are ready, the system is intended to reduce the likelihood of duplicate payments and the administrative burden of recovering money from institutions.

It could also strengthen accountability by ensuring that approved tuition funds are used only for the institution and purpose for which they were authorised.

However, students should continue to confirm their payment status through the appropriate NELFUND and institutional channels and follow their schools’ official payment procedures while the pilot is being implemented.

The introduction of the token system does not mean students will receive approved tuition funds as cash in their personal bank accounts.

It is also important to distinguish institutional charges from upkeep allowances. The reported change concerns payments for school fees, while approved upkeep allowances remain subject to the existing disbursement arrangement.

NELFUND administers the Federal Government’s student loan scheme established under the Students Loans (Access to Higher Education) Act, 2024. The programme is intended to help eligible Nigerian students meet the financial demands of tertiary education through interest-free loans for approved educational expenses.

The success of the new system will depend on how effectively NELFUND and participating institutions communicate payment information, verify transactions and resolve outstanding issues as the pilot progresses.

NELFUND Introduces Token System to Stop Double Payment of School Fees

Education

NELFUND Warns Schools: Student Loans Are Voluntary, Not Compulsory

Published

3 weeks ago

October 21, 2026

Trends Admin

NELFUND Warns Schools: Student Loans Are Voluntary, Not Compulsory

The Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) has warned tertiary institutions against compelling students to apply for the Federal Government’s student loan scheme, insisting that accessing the facility is voluntary and not a condition for studying in Nigerian institutions.

The clarification followed controversy over a directive reportedly issued by the Enugu State College of Education (Technical), Enugu, requiring all fresh and returning students to apply for and access the loan for the 2026/2027 academic session.

In a statement issued in Abuja on Wednesday, October 21, 2026, NELFUND said students should determine whether to apply based on their individual financial circumstances and genuine need for assistance.

The statement was signed by the fund’s Director of Strategic Communications, Oseyemi Oluwatuyi.

NELFUND explained that the student loan scheme was established to remove financial barriers to higher education, promote equal access to learning opportunities and ensure that eligible Nigerians were not denied education because of financial difficulties.

It stressed that students who could independently afford their educational expenses were under no obligation to apply for or access the facility.

“The student loan scheme is a support mechanism, not an obligation,” the fund stated.

NELFUND added that making the loan compulsory for every student, regardless of their financial circumstances, would defeat the purpose of the programme.

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According to the agency, its objective is not to encourage indiscriminate borrowing but to ensure that eligible students who genuinely require financial assistance can access support to pursue their academic ambitions.

The clarification comes amid concerns over an internal memorandum reportedly issued by the management of the Enugu State College of Education (Technical).

The memorandum, dated October 6, 2026, and signed by the institution’s Acting Registrar, Patrick A. Aneke, reportedly directed all students in its Nigeria Certificate in Education and degree programmes to apply for the loan for the 2026/2027 academic session.

It also instructed deans, directors, heads of departments and student representatives to communicate the directive to students and asked them to visit the institution’s NELFUND desk officer for assistance with applications.

Reports surrounding the directive indicated that students who failed to comply could face restrictions on taking examinations or continuing their studies, raising concerns about the implications of compelling students to take loans.

NELFUND’s clarification reinforces the distinction between making financial assistance available to eligible students and requiring every student to borrow, irrespective of whether they need the support.

The fund further explained that although its loans are interest-free, beneficiaries are required to repay them in accordance with the provisions of the Student Loans Act.

It therefore urged prospective applicants to understand the scheme’s terms and conditions and make informed decisions before applying.

NELFUND also called on tertiary institutions, student leaders and other stakeholders to provide accurate information about the programme and guide students who require financial assistance through the application process.

The agency reiterated its commitment to ensuring that financial hardship does not prevent eligible Nigerians from pursuing higher education.

The development has renewed attention on the implementation of the Federal Government’s student loan programme and the need for institutions to ensure that students understand both the benefits and repayment obligations associated with the facility.

NELFUND maintained that the scheme should remain an avenue for financial support for students who need it, rather than a compulsory borrowing arrangement imposed on the entire student population.