The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has admitted that a combination of technical malfunction and human error severely impacted the results of 379,997 candidates who sat for the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), with the board announcing a resit for the affected candidates beginning May 16.
Speaking during a press briefing at JAMB headquarters in Abuja on Wednesday, the Registrar, Professor Ishaq Oloyede, broke down in tears as he accepted full responsibility for the incident, describing it as a major setback for the examination body and expressing deep regret to candidates, parents, and stakeholders.
“It is our culture to admit errors because we know that in spite of the best of our efforts, we are human; we are not perfect,” Oloyede stated as he wiped away tears during the session. He also said, “This incident represents a significant setback… but we remain committed to our core values of transparency, fairness, and equity.”
The error, according to JAMB’s internal review and an independent assessment by the Educare Technical Team, was traced to a failure in updating critical server components required to support new innovations introduced in this year’s UTME. While the update was successfully applied to servers in the Kaduna cluster, it was mistakenly omitted in the Lagos cluster, which services centres in Lagos and the South-East states.
The oversight resulted in outdated server logic being used at 157 centres — 65 in Lagos and 92 in the South-East — which could not accurately interpret or validate candidate responses. The mismatch led to massive discrepancies in scoring, with over 1.5 million out of 1.9 million candidates nationwide scoring below 200.
In addition to low scores, many candidates had earlier raised alarms over technical glitches, abrupt session terminations, and inconsistencies in examination questions and answers. A detailed review of over 18,000 affected records, narrowed down to 15,000 authentic logs, revealed systemic failure in result validation linked directly to the server update error.
“These records were not just reviewed internally,” Oloyede explained, “but were subjected to external technical audits to ensure complete transparency. The conclusion is that this was not a case of system manipulation but a clear instance of human error and failed deployment oversight.”
JAMB further confirmed via its official X (formerly Twitter) account that all affected candidates will receive fresh examination slips through text messages on their registered phone numbers, directing them to retake their exams starting May 16. “Man proposes, God disposes!” the board posted, attributing the widespread low scores to the technical glitch in 157 out of 887 centres.
Calls for the resignation of the JAMB Registrar have intensified since the revelations, with critics arguing that such an oversight undermines the credibility of one of Nigeria’s most significant academic assessments. However, Oloyede maintained that the board was acting decisively to rectify the error.
“I apologise and take full responsibility, not just in words,” he said, adding, “We have vowed to uphold integrity as the abiding philosophy of JAMB and we won’t waver or depart from it despite the fact that we are not infallible.”
In his closing remarks, Oloyede expressed gratitude to the Minister of Education, the board’s partners, and stakeholders for their support during the crisis, and again apologised to the candidates and their families. “I understand there are three powerful expressions—‘please,’ ‘thank you,’ and ‘I am sorry.’ To all Nigerians, especially the affected candidates, I say: I am sorry.”
Despite the widespread impact, JAMB assured the public that measures are already being implemented to prevent future occurrences. These include improved deployment validation, real-time monitoring systems, and expanded technical oversight of examination infrastructure nationwide.
