The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has announced a rescheduled Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) for 379,997 candidates in Lagos and Nigeria’s South-East, following widespread technical disruptions and what officials have described as a coordinated act of sabotage.
JAMB Registrar, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, disclosed the development at a press briefing in Abuja on Wednesday, noting that 206,610 candidates in 65 centres across Lagos and 173,387 candidates in 92 centres across the South-East were affected.
“I apologise, I take full responsibility,” Oloyede said. He added that affected candidates will begin receiving reschedule notifications via text from Thursday.
The disruptions ranged from system failures to candidates being logged out mid-exam. Some CBT centres have already been delisted, and JAMB has promised to investigate further in collaboration with security agencies.
Mass Failure Raises Alarm
Beyond technical issues, the 2025 UTME has sparked national concern over mass failure rates. Out of 1,955,069 processed results, only 12,414 candidates (0.63%) scored 300 and above—once considered a mark of top-tier performance.
An alarming 1.5 million candidates, or over 75% of all examinees, scored below 200 out of the total 400 marks. A breakdown shows:
334,560 candidates (17.11%) scored 200–249
983,187 (50.29%) scored 160–199
488,197 (24.97%) scored 140–159
57,419 (2.94%) scored 120–139
3,820 (0.20%) scored 100–119
2,031 (0.10%) scored below 100
Education experts have linked the poor performance to deeper systemic issues including poor curriculum implementation, undertrained teachers, and infrastructure gaps in secondary education.
Next Steps and Reforms
Oloyede assured candidates that reforms are underway to strengthen the integrity and reliability of the examination process. Measures include stricter accreditation of CBT centres and greater biometric oversight.
He also emphasized that the rescheduled UTME would be free for affected candidates and urged them to disregard unofficial messages or scams.
The poor results are expected to impact the 2025 admissions process, with institutions likely to revise their screening benchmarks. Meanwhile, calls are growing louder for a national dialogue on the state of education in Nigeria.
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