JAMB to announce results of rescheduled UTME for 379,000 candidates

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has said it will release the results of 379,000 candidates who participated in the rescheduled Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) on Wednesday.

The special round of testing followed public outrage over mass failure in the original 2025 UTME.

Investigations later revealed that both technical malfunctions and human lapses — particularly in Lagos and South-East Nigeria — significantly affected the outcome of many candidates.

Of the roughly 1.9 million candidates who sat for the exam, over 1.5 million scored below 200 out of a possible 400 marks, prompting widespread concern among parents, schools, and stakeholders.

JAMB subsequently launched an investigation into the irregularities.

The board’s Registrar, Professor Ishaq Oloyede, admitted the agency’s shortcomings during a press briefing last week and announced a resit for the affected students.

Visibly emotional, Oloyede took full responsibility for the glitches that marred the exams.

Speaking to The PUNCH on Monday, JAMB’s head of public affairs, Dr Fabian Benjamin, confirmed that the results of the make-up test would be ready by Wednesday.

Professor Oloyede had earlier disclosed that 379,997 students were impacted — including 206,610 in 65 Lagos centres and 173,387 across 92 centres in the South-East.

He described the disruptions as acts of sabotage and said candidates began receiving SMS notifications about the new exam schedule last Thursday.

According to statistics provided by JAMB, of the 1,955,069 original results processed, only 4,756 candidates (0.24%) scored 320 or higher.

Another 7,658 (0.39%) scored between 300 and 319. In total, just 0.63% of test-takers scored above 300.

Additionally, 73,441 (3.76%) earned scores between 250 and 299; 334,560 (17.11%) fell within the 200–249 range; while 983,187 (50.29%) scored between 160 and 199 — a benchmark commonly used for admission into higher institutions.

In lower performance bands, 488,197 candidates (24.97%) scored between 140 and 159; 57,419 (2.94%) between 120 and 139; 3,820 (0.20%) between 100 and 119; and 2,031 (0.10%) below 100.

These figures show that more than three-quarters of all candidates failed to reach the 200 mark.

In reaction to the controversy, lawmakers from the South-East region in the House of Representatives issued a statement on Monday demanding Professor Oloyede’s resignation, calling the 2025 UTME process a “catastrophic failure.”

The statement, signed by Hon. Iduma Igariwey (PDP, Ebonyi), criticized the hasty scheduling of the resit and its overlap with the ongoing West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE), which they said caused unnecessary confusion and stress for students.

The lawmakers noted that on May 14, Professor Oloyede admitted publicly that nearly 380,000 candidates would have to retake the UTME due to technical faults.

They said every state in the South-East was directly affected by the irregularities.

They argued that despite JAMB’s apology and acknowledgment of faults, the corrective steps taken so far are inadequate.

The group urged the Federal Government to cancel the 2025 UTME entirely and schedule a new examination after WAEC and NECO exams have concluded.

Furthermore, they demanded that key figures in JAMB’s digital and logistics departments be suspended pending a full investigation.

The caucus added, “JAMB’s reaction to this crisis has been disorganized and insufficient. Many students had less than 48 hours’ notice for the retake, and in several cases, it clashed with their WAEC papers. This created panic, low turnout, and confusion among families across the South-East.”