The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has admitted to a technical error that affected the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) results of nearly 388,000 candidates across 157 centres in Nigeria.
During a press briefing in Abuja on Wednesday, JAMB Registrar Professor Ishaq Oloyede explained that a faulty server update caused the issue. The error affected candidates who sat for the UTME during the first three days of the exam.
According to him, the problem came from one of JAMB’s two technical service providers. The board discovered that the faulty server updates in the Lagos and Owerri zones caused candidates’ answers to fail to upload correctly. The board only noticed the issue after releasing the results on May 9.
In total, 65 centres in Lagos, with 206,610 candidates, and 92 centres in the Owerri zone, with 173,387 candidates, were affected. This brings the total number of impacted candidates to 387,997.
JAMB to Reschedule UTME for Affected Students
To fix the error, JAMB will hold a rescheduled UTME for the affected candidates starting Friday, May 16. The board will notify each candidate through SMS, email, and phone calls. Candidates are advised to reprint their exam slips to check the new date, time, and venue.
JAMB has also reached out to the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) to make sure the rescheduled UTME does not clash with the ongoing WASSCE exams.
“As JAMB registrar, I take full responsibility for this error, even though it came from our service provider,” Oloyede said. “I sincerely apologise to all affected candidates and their families.”
What Caused the Error?
Oloyede explained that the board had made some updates to the UTME grading system after conducting mock exams. These updates included shuffling the answer options to prevent cheating. However, a mistake occurred during the system update for the LAG exam zone, which covers the south-west, south-east, and parts of the north.
JAMB deployed a software patch to support the update, but some of the exam servers did not receive it properly. The technical staff responsible failed to complete the update, and the board did not catch the problem before publishing the results.
Experts Brought In to Review the System
Due to complaints and public concern, JAMB launched a quick review of the results and invited independent experts, including top computer scientists and psychometricians, to check the system. Their review confirmed that only the affected centres had issues, and no other locations showed abnormal results.
The original 2025 UTME results, released on May 7, showed that over 78% of candidates scored below 200 out of the maximum 400 marks. The low scores sparked protests and questions about the exam’s fairness and reliability.
Oloyede assured the public that JAMB remains committed to transparency and fairness and will work harder to avoid future mistakes.
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2 replies on “BREAKING: JAMB Admits Error in 2025 UTME Results”
[…] Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has acknowledged a major technical error that affected the 2025 UTME results of nearly 388,000 candidates. A […]
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