The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has acknowledged that errors occurred during the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), which impacted the performance of numerous candidates.
JAMB Registrar, Professor Ishaq Oloyede, revealed this during a press conference held in Abuja on Wednesday, May 14. He announced that the board has scheduled a fresh UTME for 379,997 candidates in the five South-East states and Lagos State.
What should have been a moment of joy has been marred by one or two errors, Prof. Oloyede admitted.
Oloyede, who accepted responsibility for what he termed a “sabotage” of the 2025 UTME exercise, stated that the affected candidates would begin receiving text messages from the Board starting Thursday, May 15, 2025.
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“The affected candidates will start getting text messages for rescheduling starting from tomorrow (Thursday). I apologise, I take full responsibility,” the JAMB Registrar stated.
He did not, however, provide specific details about the nature of the errors.
The UTME is a compulsory examination for students seeking admission into tertiary institutions across Nigeria. It comprises four subjects, with English Language as a mandatory component, alongside three other subjects relevant to the candidate’s intended field of study.
On May 5, JAMB released the results of the 2025 UTME, which was conducted nationwide. According to the data, over 1.5 million of the 1.9 million candidates—approximately 79 percent—scored below 200. Further analysis showed that only 12,414 candidates scored 300 and above, representing less than one percent of the total.
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The results sparked widespread concern across the country, prompting candidates and their families to voice their frustrations on social media and urge JAMB to reassess the results. In some cases, legal action was taken against the examination body.
In response, two days ago, JAMB announced that it had begun investigating the complaints related to the 2025 UTME results. To address potential technical issues, the board has assembled a panel of experts, including representatives from the Computer Professionals Association of Nigeria, Chief External Examiners (comprising heads of tertiary institutions), the Educational Assessment and Research Network in Africa, assessment specialists, and vice chancellors from various universities across the country.
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