The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, JAMB, has apologized to 379,997 candidates who sat for the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination, UTME, from S’East and Lagos and rescheduled their UTME, after admitting to serious technical errors that marred the integrity of the 2025 exercise in some centres.
JAMB Registrar, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, tendered the apology on Wednesday during a press conference in Abuja, following public outcry over the recently released results.
Oloyede described the disruption as a “deeply regrettable incident” that occurred in 157 centres, 65 in Lagos and 92 in the South-East, due to a botched software patch applied by one of the Board’s technical service providers.
The JAMB boss confirmed that candidates from the affected centres will retake the exam starting Friday, May 16.
“Though this was not a system-wide failure, we uncovered serious lapses on the part of one service provider, leading to incomplete upload of candidates’ responses.
“We regret the trauma this has caused and apologise unreservedly to the affected candidates and Nigerians at large,” Oloyede said, taking full responsibility.
The registrar, who gave a comprehensive breakdown of JAMB’s quality assurance protocols, lamented that despite extensive preparations, including multiple tests, simulations, and mock exams, the glitch went undetected until after results were released on Friday, May 9.
Recall that 1.9 million candidates who sat the 2025 UTME, out of which over 1.5 million reportedly scored below 200 from the maximum 400 marks, raising concerns across the education sector.
The exam body had announced that a total of 1,955,069 results were processed, out of which only 4,756 candidates, representing 0.24 per cent scored 320 and above, while 7,658 candidates, representing 0.39 per cent scored between 300 and 319.
Meanwhile, over 75 per cent of all candidates, 1.5 million, scored below 200 average score.
According to Oloyede, JAMB assembled an emergency panel of top educational technocrats, including renowned psychometrician, Prof. Boniface Nworgu, and representatives from WAEC, the Nigerian Academy of Education, parents and students’ groups, to probe the result saga.
Within 24 hours, he said, the panel identified the fault and isolated the affected centres.
“Had the service provider followed our standard protocols, this embarrassment would have been avoided,” Oloyede said.
He also revealed that the West African Examination Council, WAEC, has agreed to adjust its timetable to accommodate affected candidates writing both exams, while JAMB would ensure no student faces a clash of schedules.
The board said despite the setback, the 2025 UTME recorded a higher top score with 374, than any in the last 15 years.
However, Oloyede noted that the overall performance was lower than last year’s, even though it remained within the historical performance curve.
The registrar appealed for understanding and reiterated JAMB’s commitment to fairness and transparency.
“There are three powerful expressions: ‘please’, ‘thank you’, and ‘I am sorry.’ I plead with all affected candidates: please accept our apology. We thank you for your patience, and I, on behalf of JAMB, say again: I am sorry,” he said.
Affected candidates will receive messages via SMS and email directing them to reprint their exam slips for the rescheduled tests.
