*Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, Registrar of Nigeria’s Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, says the Board apologises for errors that affected candidates鈥� performance during the 2025 just concluded Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination, noting about 379,997 candidates will resit the examinations

Isola Moses | 绿帽献妻

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has acknowledged, and apologised over apparent technical glitches that affected several candidates鈥� performance during the just-concluded 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), held across different centres across Nigeria.

绿帽献妻 reports the Board’s admittance of errors in the last exercise followed widespread complaints of technical glitches, unusually low scores, and alleged irregularities in the questions and the answers during the examination.

Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, Registrar of JAMB, who stated this at a media briefing Wednesday, May 14, 2025, in Abuja, FCT, also fought back tears while disclosing the Board’s admittance of the error.

Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, Registrar of JAMB (2nd right) and other officials of the Board at the media briefing in Abuja, FCT

Oloyede said: 鈥淥nce again, we apologise and assure you that this incident represents a significant setback鈥�.

“We remain committed to emerging stronger in our core values of transparency, fairness and equity.

鈥淚t is our culture to admit errors because we know that in spite of the best of our efforts, we are human; we are not perfect.”

The Registrar also announced that about 379,997 candidates in the just-concluded 2025 UTME would retake the examinations at a scheduled date(s).

Earlier, in a blog post on its verified X handle Wednesday, JAMB had stated that a technical glitch affected 157 out of the 887 centres across the West African country.

The public examination body admitted that the development was responsible for the general low performance of the candidates in the last exercise.

JAMB said: 鈥淢an Proposes, God Disposes! It has been established that a technical glitch affected 157 centres out of the 887 centres in the 2025 UTME.

“This was basically responsible for the general low performance of the candidates scheduled to sit the examination in those centres.”

The Board noted: 鈥淎s such, all the affected candidates will be contacted to reprint their examination slips towards retaking their examinations starting from 16th May, 2025.鈥�

Breakdown of candidates鈥� performance in 2025 UTME

JAMB, in a blog post on its verified official X account May 5, had highlighted that 1,955,069 candidates sat for the examination, and 1,534,654 candidates鈥攔epresenting 78.5 percent鈥攕cored below the 200 mark.

It stated that out of the 1.9 million candidates who sat the UTME this year, over 1.5 million reportedly scored below 200 out of the maximum 400 marks, raising concerns across the education sector.

The Board said that a total of 1,955,069 results were processed, out of which only 4,756 candidates (0.24 percent) scored 320 and above, considered top-tier performance, while 7,658 candidates (0.39 percent) scored between 300 and 319, bringing the total for those who scored 300 and above to 12,414 candidates (0.63 percent).

Besides, 73,441 candidates (3.76 per cent) scored between 250 and 299 while 334,560 candidates (17.11 percent) scored between 200 and 249.

A total of 983,187 candidates (50.29 per cent) scored between 160 and 199, which is widely regarded as the minimum threshold for admissions in many institutions.

Likewise, 488,197 candidates (24.97 percent) scored between 140 and 159, 57,419 candidates (2.94 percent) scored between 120 and 139, 3,820 candidates (0.20 percent) scored between 100 and 119, and 2,031 candidates (0.10 percent) scored below 100.

Over 75 percent of all candidates (1.5 million) scored below 200, average score seeing as the examination is graded over 400.

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