The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) admits that its shoddy conduct of the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) experienced severe glitches leading to protests from various quarters and a decision to reschedule the test for over 379,997 candidates, whose scores fell abysmally lower than expectation, prompting renewed agitations for scrapping the agency
By Edu Abade
Candidates seeking admissions into various degree programmes in Nigeria’s tertiary institutions have never had it so bad. For one thing, the timing of 6:30 am for a good number of candidates did not sit well with some parents, who had to leave their locations as early as 4:00 am amid escalating insecurity, just to ensure that their wards got to their centres on time to take the crucial test.
For lack of money to pay for a hotel, a parent who resides in Atan, Ogun State had to leave earlier than 4:00 am just to beat time as his son was scheduled for 6:30 am around the Ago Palace Way in the Oshodi Isolo Local Government Area (LGA) of Lagos State.
Sadly, after making sure that their children beat the odd timing, candidates were confronted with system inadequacies such as computers going off in the middle of the examination, incomplete questions and even power failure in some centres designated for the Computer Based Test (CBT). There was also the allegation of time constraint in which candidates were advised to jump questions one to ten and begin to attempt from the eleventh question in order to beat time. The alleged jumping of questions contributed in no small way to the failure of many writers of the exam.
Responding to the JAMB’s poor outing, a group of Nigerian parents protested against the low scores in the recent UTME at JAMB office, while expressing concerns over the impact of the scores on their children’s future.
A report released by JAMB last week had revealed that over 70 percent of the 1.9 million candidates scored below 200 out of the 400 marks. The report sparked widespread concern among candidates and their families, especially those who had performed better in previous UTME attempts.
A candidate, who scored 311 last year, lamented that he was awarded a mere 148 points and had demanded a review of his score, insisting that he couldn’t perform so poorly this time. Another lamented that she was awarded 89 marks, whereas she was sure of making at least 200 points.
Smarting from a very disappointing result, Faith Timilehin, a 19-year-old candidate, reportedly took her life after scoring 190 in the UTME. Ironically, her JAMB admission arrived 30 minutes after her death.
Miss Timilehin, who applied for Microbiology, had sat for the UTME the year before with a better score.
She ingested a rodenticide at her Ikorodu home, where she lived with an older sibling.
Neighbours mourned, describing her as “gentle and humble,” sparking outrage over mass failure trends at JAMB exams.
To her neighbours, Timilehin was not just a student, she was also a quiet and brilliant teenager with rich dreams about her future. That she ended her life over a 190 score-one many would envy-has left many questioning the weight of expectations young people silently bear.
Most of the protesting parents, therefore, demanded a thorough review of the results, expressing doubts about the credibility of the scoring process, while arguing that the drastic drop in performance did not reflect their children’s academic capabilities.
Following the public outcry generated by the inadequacies of the 2025 UTME, Registrar of JAMB, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, on Wednesday, May 14, 2025 was said to have wept and apologised for the errors in the test.
Speaking at a media on Wednesday, May 14 in Abuja, Oloyede took responsibility for the errors and glitches in the examination, and assured the public that the 379,997 affected candidates would be communicated through Short Message Service (SMS) by Thursday, May 15 so that they could reprint their slips for rescheduled examinations on Friday, May 16, 2025 and Saturday, May 17.
Oloyede who shed tears during a press briefing in Abuja, also revealed that the glitches, which caused widespread outrage and confusion among candidates and stakeholders, were traced to a failure in the deployment of updated grading software by one of JAMB’s service providers.
“The issue specifically impacted 65 centres in the Lagos Zone affecting 206,610 candidates and 92 centres in Owerri Zone, affecting over 173,387 candidates. I apologise for the trauma caused the candidates and I take full responsibility for this,” he said.
Of the 1.9 million candidates who sat for this year’s UTME, over 1.5 million reportedly scored below 200 out of the maximum 400 marks. The Board affirmed that a total of 1,955,069 results were processed, of which only 4,756 candidates (0.24 per cent) scored 320 and above.
Also, 7,658 candidates (0.39 per cent) scored between 300 and 319, bringing the total for those who scored 300 and above to 12,414 candidates or just 0.63 per cent. 73,441 candidates (3.76 per cent) scored between 250 and 299, while 334,560 candidates (17.11 per cent) scored between 200 and 249.
Details of the results also showed that 983,187 candidates or 50.29 per cent scored between 160 and 199, which is widely regarded as the minimum threshold for admission in many higher institutions.
In the same vein, 488,197 candidates (24.97 per cent) scored between 140 and 159, 57,419 candidates (2.94 per cent), scored between 120 and 139, 3,820 candidates (0.20 per cent) scored between 100 and 119, and 2,031 candidates (0.10 per cent) scored below 100.
Oloyede, who admitted that one or two errors were made during the 2025 UTME exercise, after the investigations carried out, also highlighted JAMB’s robust quality assurance systems, which include mock exams, technical simulations and deployment of oversight teams comprising Vice-Chancellors of universities, civil society representatives, software engineers, and education experts.
He, however, acknowledged that even the most stringent measures cannot eliminate all risks, adding, “This unfortunate incident represents significant self-harm to the integrity we’ve built over the years. But we remain committed to transparency, fairness, and equity. It is our culture to admit error and take responsibility.”
In response to public concern, he said the Board fast-tracked its typical post-examination audit, which was originally scheduled for June and had convened emergency meetings with stakeholders, including educators, psychometricians and student associations to isolate the issue and chart a course for remediation.
“We apologise, sincerely, to the Nigerian students, parents and schools affected. While this was not a case of sabotage, the oversight by one of our two service providers was inexcusable,” the Registrar stated, adding that the 2025 UTME recorded the highest individual score in the last 15 years with 374 highest score.
He said this indicated improvements from previous years, noting that overall performance still aligned with historical trends, with some early reports of widespread failure stemming largely from the glitch in affected zones.
But following Oloyede’s admission of technical glitches, a lecturer in the Department of Political Science, Nnamdi Azikiwe University (UNIZIK), Awka, Dr. Christian Okeke, has asked the JAMB Registrar, to go beyond weeping over his incompetence and resign immediately.
He said rewriting the examination in some centres was unacceptable, adding that only the release of the true results of candidates would remedy the situation.
Noting that the Board would have continued to grandstand were it not for the sustained pressure mounted on it by concerned stakeholders, Okeke said Oloyede’s weeping and merely saying that he takes full responsibility for the negligence of its staff in one of the most traumatic examination outings for teenage applicants in history was not enough.
“He should go extra step by resigning from office and allowing the Federal Government to reposition the Board for effective service delivery”, he stated.
On his part, a former presidential aide and socio-political commentator, Reno Omokri, who highlighted the logistics challenges faced by JAMB during the 2025 UTME, drew a comparison to the complexities encountered by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in conducting general elections in Nigeria.
In a post on his X account, Omokri reflected on the difficulties JAMB experienced in managing approximately 1.9 million candidates, emphasizing that the challenges should serve as a lesson for Nigerians who often criticize INEC over election conduct.
“Do you see how challenging it is for JAMB to hold examinations for only 1.5 million students yearly? The logistics difficulties they face, the hiccups in releasing results, the cancellation of results owing to malpractice and the glitches at some centres, force JAMB to cancel examinations in 157 centres nationwide.
Things even got to a head such that the Registrar of JAMB shed tears as he apologised to the nation,” Omokri stated.
In the meantime, some notable Nigerians including the 2023 Labour Party presidential candidate Peter Obi, former Education Minister Oby Ezekwesili, and ex-Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) Corps Marshal Osita Chidoka, have equally reacted to JAMB’s admission of errors in the 2025 UTME.
Although they commended the JAMB Registrar, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, for owning up to the glitches, they expressed concern over the impact on students, parents, and the education system.
