The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has admitted to a technical error that marred the conduct of the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), affecting the results of 379,997 candidates across 157 centres nationwide.
Speaking at a press conference in Abuja on Wednesday, JAMB Registrar, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, disclosed that the board had traced the error to faulty server updates in its Lagos and Owerri zones, which led to the failure to upload candidates’ responses during the first three days of the examination.
According to Oloyede, the discrepancy originated from one of the two technical service providers engaged for the examination and went undetected until after the results were released on May 9.
A breakdown of the affected figures showed that 206,610 candidates in 65 centres in Lagos and 173,387 candidates in 92 centres in Owerri were impacted by the technical failure.
“To address this unfortunate development, the board has resolved to reschedule the UTME for all affected candidates, with the new examination dates starting from Friday, May 16,” Oloyede announced.
The board assured that affected candidates would be notified through SMS, emails and phone calls.
They are also expected to reprint their examination slips to access updated test schedules and centres.
Prof. Oloyede expressed personal responsibility for the mishap, offering an unreserved apology to candidates, parents and stakeholders.
“As the registrar of JAMB, I hold myself personally responsible, including for the negligence of the service provider. I unreservedly apologise for it,” he stated.
The registrar revealed that JAMB had reached out to the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) to prevent any clash between the rescheduled UTME and the ongoing West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE).
The development follows widespread outcry and protests over the integrity of the 2025 UTME, especially after a post-examination analysis showed that over 78 percent of candidates scored below 200 out of the 400 maximum obtainable points.
Oloyede attributed part of the issue to a new feature introduced in this year’s UTME — shuffled answer options — which, despite undergoing mock tests and system simulations, encountered implementation errors during live grading.
He explained that the oversight occurred when a software patch deployed to the LAG examination zone — comprising South-West, South-East, and parts of the North — was not properly applied on some delivery servers.
“The technical personnel deployed by the service provider for LAG inadvertently failed to update some of the delivery servers. Regrettably, this oversight went undetected before the release of the results,” Oloyede said.
In response to the backlash, the board accelerated its post-examination audit, engaging external psychometricians and computer scientists to independently review the process.
Oloyede noted that the investigation confirmed the error was restricted to the 157 identified centres and that no other abnormalities were found in other locations across the country.
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