Females get better results, but fewer admissions to tertiary institutions

Despite getting better results than their male counterparts at O’Levels — WAEC and NECO — fewer females secure admission to tertiary institutions in Nigeria.

This was in a report by the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, titled “2021 women and men in Nigeria statistical report”.

It looked at 2018 to 2020 and found out that more female students were able to secure more passes at credit level in at least five subjects including English Language and Mathematics, which is the qualifications for admission.

However, they were still fewer in number, compared to males, regarding those who enrolled for higher education.

NBS said in 2018, 1,036,644 candidates sat for the June/July NECO exam, out of which 588, 477 were males and 450,167 were females.

But 74.65% of the females passed with five credits and above including English and Mathematics, while 69.06% males did same.

In 2019, 643,462 males sat for the exam and 515,484 females also did, but 74.21% females passed, while 69.51 males did. Same in 2020 when 76.72% of the females passed as compared to 71.55% males.

WAEC

In May/June WASSCE of 2018, when 1,571,536 wrote the exam, 51.01% females passed compared to 45.55% of the male candidates.

In 2019 when 1,590,107 sat for the exam, 64.45% females passed, while 62,43% males did. In 2020, 1,538,340 candidates wrote the exam and 67.35% females passed as compared to 64.16% males.

It was same in the examinations conducted by the National Business and Technical Examination Board, NABTEB, in the years under review.

Admission

However, regarding admission to tertiary institutions, of the 1,653,127 candidates who wrote the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examinations, UTME, conducted by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, JAMB, in 2018, 582,593 were offered admission and only 43.82% were females.

In 2019, 1,886,488 wrote the exam and 608,859 admitted with 43.46% being females.

The NBS also reported that female enrolment in Colleges of Education owned by the Federal Government, state governments and private concerns, in 2017/18 session, the percentages of females in those colleges were 32.43% for federal, 30.37% for state and 35.14% for private ones.

Also, the review showed that in the period under review, there were 10,075 male professors, compared to 1,802 female ones in Nigerian universities.

Other categories are: Readers – 4,774 males, 1,262 females; Senior Lecturers – 11,185 males, 3,329 females, and Lecturer 1 and above – 30,029 males and 10,987 females.