The Joint Admission and Matriculation Board, JAMB, on Wednesday, finally admitted to errors in the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination, UTME.
The errors, which affected the performance of the candidates during the 2025, all-important examination, that qualifies candodates’ admission to tertiary insritutions, were initially denied by the board as well as the minister of education, Tunji Alausa.
The Registrar of the Board, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede admitted to this during an ongoing press briefing in Abuja.
“What should have been a moment of joy has changed due to one or two errors,” Oloyede said.
Prof. Oloyede, who wept profusely, intermittently wiping his face with a handkerchief, said he took full responsibility for the negligence of its staff, revealing that 65 centres in Lagos and 92 centres in the Owerri Zone, covering the five states in the South East, would rewrite the exam.
“I apologise for the trauma caused to the candidates and I take full responsibility for this,” he said
The UTME is a critical prerequisite for admission into tertiary institutions in Nigeria, testing candidates in four subjects, including the compulsory Use of English, with the other three drawn from their proposed field of study.
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.
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According to the examination body, 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.
Some affected candidates threatened to initiate a lawsuit against JAMB.
