The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has admitted to errors in the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), citing technical glitches that affected 157 out of 887 centers nationwide. Registrar Professor Ishaq Oloyede shed tears while apologizing for the errors, saying, “I apologise for the trauma caused the candidates.” He took full responsibility for the negligence, describing the incident as an “easily avoidable error by one or two persons”.

The technical glitch occurred during the automated marking of scripts in 65 centers in Lagos and 92 centers in Owerri zone, covering South East states. A faulty software patch deployed by one of JAMB’s technical service providers failed to update certain servers, leading to incomplete or inaccurate result uploads.

The board has announced that 379,997 candidates will retake the examination starting from May 16, 2025. Oloyede explained that the candidates would be contacted via text messages, email, and phone calls to retake the examination. JAMB is coordinating with WAEC to avoid scheduling conflicts.

A statistical breakdown of the 2025 UTME results revealed that over 1.5 million candidates scored below 200 out of the maximum 400 marks. Only 4,756 candidates (0.24%) achieved scores of 320 and above, while 12,414 candidates (0.63%) scored 300 and above.

Oloyede emphasized JAMB’s commitment to transparency, fairness, and equity, stating, “We remain committed to emerging stronger in our core values.” He thanked stakeholders for their support and expertise in arriving at a logical conclusion.