The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has admitted to a technical error that compromised the integrity of the results from the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) in 157 centres across the country.
Registrar of the Board, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, during a press conference in Abuja on Wednesday broke into tears as he apologised for the errors in the exams.
According to him, the 379,997 candidates in the five states of the South East and Lagos will be rescheduled for another Unified Tertiary and Matriculation Examination.
Oloyede, who took responsibility for what he described as a “sabotage” of the 2025 UTME, said the affected candidates will start getting text messages from the Board starting Thursday.
“I apologise for the trauma caused the candidates,” Oloyede said tearfully during a press conference in Abuja.
“The affected candidates will start getting text messages for reschedule starting from tomorrow.
“I apologise, I take full responsibility.”
Of the 1.9 million candidates who sat the UTME, over 1.5 million reportedly scored below 200 out of the maximum 400 marks, raising concerns across the education sector.
According to the examination agency, a total of 1,955,069 results were processed, out of which only 4,756 candidates (0.24 per cent) scored 320 and above, considered top-tier performance, while 7,658 candidates (0.39 per cent) scored between 300 and 319, bringing the total for those who scored 300 and above to 12,414 candidates (0.63 per cent).
Also, 73,441 candidates (3.76 per cent) scored between 250 and 299 while 334,560 candidates (17.11 per cent) 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.
In the same vein, 488,197 candidates (24.97 per cent) scored between 140 and 159, 57,419 candidates (2.94 per cent) scored between 120 and 139, 3,820 candidates (0.20 per cent) scored between 100 and 119, and 2,031 candidates (0.10 per cent) scored below 100.
Over 75 per cent of all candidates (1.5 million) scored below 200, average score seeing as the examination is graded over 400.
Recall that the Board had earlier fixed Thursday, May 15 for the review of the examination results after nationwide outcry over the mass failure of candidates.