The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has confirmed that it will release the results of 379,000 candidates who participated in the rescheduled Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) this Wednesday.
These candidates, drawn mostly from Lagos and South-East states, sat for the special resit exams between Friday and Monday after the board admitted to widespread technical and human errors during the initial test exercise.
The decision to reschedule the examination followed a nationwide uproar over mass failures recorded during the main UTME. According to data released by JAMB, over 1.5 million out of the 1.9 million candidates who sat for this year’s UTME scored below 200 out of a possible 400, prompting concern from parents, educational stakeholders, and lawmakers.
JAMB Registrar, Professor Ishaq Oloyede, last week took full responsibility for the failure and openly wept during a press conference where he announced the board’s plan for a resit.
Oloyede described the situation as a deliberate act of sabotage, especially targeting examination centres in Lagos and the South-East region. He revealed that 206,610 candidates were affected across 65 centres in Lagos, while 173,387 candidates were affected in 92 centres across the South-East.
Speaking to The PUNCH on Monday, JAMB’s spokesperson, Dr Fabian Benjamin, confirmed that the results of the rescheduled exam would be made public on Wednesday.
He stated that candidates who participated in the resit would be able to access their results through the usual JAMB portals and SMS notifications.
The gravity of the examination failure was highlighted in the performance statistics released by the board. Out of 1,955,069 processed results, only 4,756 candidates scored 320 and above, representing just 0.24 percent.
An additional 7,658 candidates scored between 300 and 319, bringing the total number of top scorers (300 and above) to only 12,414, which is 0.63 percent of the entire candidate population. About 73,441 candidates scored between 250 and 299, while 334,560 scored between 200 and 249.
However, the majority of candidates, approximately 983,187, scored between 160 and 199, and another 488,197 scored between 140 and 159. Furthermore, 57,419 candidates scored between 120 and 139, 3,820 scored between 100 and 119, and 2,031 candidates scored below 100.
These figures have sparked outrage across the country, with many questioning the integrity of JAMB’s testing and scoring system. The backlash has now extended to the National Assembly, where lawmakers from the South-East region have issued a damning statement demanding Professor Oloyede’s resignation and a total cancellation of the 2025 UTME.
In a joint statement signed by Hon. Iduma Igariwey (PDP, Ebonyi) and other members of the South-East Caucus in the House of Representatives, the lawmakers expressed deep concern over what they described as a catastrophic institutional failure.
They criticized JAMB’s handling of the crisis, especially the short notice given for the rescheduled examination, which they said clashed with the ongoing West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WAEC) and caused unnecessary confusion and trauma for students and their families.
The caucus recalled that on May 14, 2025, the JAMB Registrar publicly admitted that a technical glitch during the UTME affected approximately 379,997 candidates, most of whom were from the South-East.
They condemned the board’s response as inadequate and poorly executed, noting that students were given less than 48 hours' notice for the rescheduled exam, leading to low turnout in several areas. In many cases, the rescheduled UTME directly conflicted with WAEC papers, compounding the frustration and anxiety among affected students.
Citing Section 18(1) of the 1999 Constitution, which mandates the government to ensure equal and adequate educational opportunities at all levels, the lawmakers insisted that the flawed UTME had effectively denied thousands of South-East students their constitutional right to fair access to education.
They demanded the suspension of key officials responsible for JAMB’s digital infrastructure and logistics, stating that mere apologies from the Registrar were not enough to address the damage done.
While acknowledging Oloyede’s transparency in owning up to the board’s failures, the caucus declared that the steps taken so far fall drastically short of the expectations of the Nigerian public.
They reiterated their demand for a fresh UTME to be scheduled after the conclusion of WAEC and NECO examinations to ensure no student is unfairly disadvantaged.
As JAMB prepares to release the resit results on Wednesday, the controversy surrounding the 2025 UTME remains far from over. With public trust in the board hanging by a thread, all eyes will be on how it handles this latest development and whether it can restore confidence in Nigeria’s premier university entrance examination.
Source: Punch