The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has officially admitted to a technical error that compromised the conduct and grading of the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), significantly impacting candidates in the Lagos and Owerri zones.
During a press briefing in Bwari, Abuja, on Wednesday, JAMB Registrar, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, offered a heartfelt public apology, taking full responsibility for the mishap.
> “I sincerely apologise for the trauma inflicted on the affected candidates. As the head of this institution, I take full responsibility,” Prof. Oloyede stated, visibly emotional.
Understanding the Root Cause: A Technical Breakdown
Prof. Oloyede explained that the error originated from a technical glitch within JAMB’s internal examination management system. The board operates through two operational frameworks—KAD and LAG vehicles.
KAD oversees the Northern states (excluding Kano, Katsina, Jigawa, Niger, Kogi, and FCT) but includes the six South-South states.
LAG covers the remaining Southern states, plus Kano, Katsina, Jigawa, Niger, Kogi, and FCT.
The glitch occurred within the LAG vehicle, where exam options failed to shuffle correctly. In an attempt to resolve the issue on April 29, 2025, a corrective software patch was deployed. Unfortunately, this solution introduced new errors in some centres across Lagos and the South East, leading to discrepancies in candidates’ results.
> “During the patch update, technical lapses in server configurations at select centres went undetected before the release of results, affecting accurate score computation,” Oloyede explained.
Scale of the Impact: 157 Centres, Over 380,000 Candidates
JAMB disclosed that:
65 centres (206,610 candidates) in the Lagos zone
92 centres (173,387 candidates) in the Owerri zone (covering the South East states)
were directly affected by the grading errors.
The root cause was traced to service providers’ failure to update delivery servers, a critical oversight that escaped detection during post-examination checks.
Public Outcry and Swift Action
The controversy gained momentum after JAMB released individual UTME results on May 9, with only 21.5% of candidates scoring above 200—the general university admission benchmark. Out of 1,955,069 candidates, just 412,415 met or exceeded this threshold.
This sparked widespread dissatisfaction among candidates, parents, and educators, who took to social media demanding explanations, result verification, and, in some cases, a full re-marking of scripts. Allegations of systemic failures, such as:
malfunctioning exam systems,
disappearing questions,
inaccessible sections, further fueled public frustration.
In response, JAMB accelerated its internal review, which typically spans several weeks, due to the intensity of the public backlash.
> “The volume and weight of the complaints left us with no choice but to fast-track the review process,” Prof. Oloyede admitted.
Performance Highlights Amid the Crisis
Despite the overall decline in candidate performance compared to previous years, JAMB noted a significant achievement—the highest individual UTME score in over 15 years, with one candidate attaining 374 marks.
While the board had anticipated better general performance due to enhanced exam systems, the final results, though disappointing, remained consistent with historical performance trends.
Credit: Nairametrics
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