JAMB Apologises, Reschedules UTME for 380,000 Candidates After Technical Blunder

JAMB Apologises, Reschedules UTME for 380,000 Candidates After Technical Blunder

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has admitted to a serious error in the conduct of the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), affecting nearly 380,000 candidates across multiple states.

In a press briefing held in Abuja on Wednesday, JAMB Registrar, Prof. Is-haq Oloyede, disclosed that the error—caused by both human oversight and technical faults—impacted the performance and results of candidates who sat for the exam between April 24 and May 5.

The affected states include Imo, Anambra, Enugu, Ebonyi, Abia, and Lagos. According to JAMB, 379,997 candidates from these states will have their exams rescheduled to hold between Friday, May 16 and Sunday, May 18, 2025.

Prof. Oloyede, who became emotional during the announcement, publicly accepted responsibility for the mishap.

“It was a combination of human error and technology. We are sincerely sorry.

“What should have been a moment of joy has changed due to one or two errors,” Oloyede stated.

He further explained that a service provider responsible for the Lagos and South-East zones failed to properly update delivery servers at 157 CBT centres.

“In simple terms, while 65 centres (206,610 candidates) were affected in Lagos zone (comprising only Lagos state), 92 centres (173,387 candidates) were affected in Owerri zone, which includes the South East states. In clear terms, in the process of rectifying the issue, the technical personnel deployed by the Service Provider for LAG (Lagos and South-East zones) inadvertently failed to update some of the delivery servers. Regrettably, this oversight went undetected prior to the release of the results.

“Despite being able to identify the source of the problem and the affected centres, we are conscious of the painful damage it has inflicted on the reputation of JAMB.

“As Registrar of JAMB, I hold myself personally responsible, including for the negligence of the service provider, and I unreservedly apologise for it and the trauma that it has subjected affected Nigerians to, directly and indirectly.”

JAMB also assured that candidates will begin receiving notifications for their rescheduled exams via SMS starting Thursday.

“Once again, we apologise and assure you that this incident represents a significant setback for the Board’s reputation. We remain committed to emerging stronger in our core values of transparency, fairness, and equity. It is our culture to admit error because we know that in spite of the best of our efforts, we are human, we are not perfect. The only consolation we have in this case is that it is just one of the two service providers that did not do well by uploading improperly but it was not a case of glitches nor sabotage.”

Read also: “Why there is High Failure Rate in the 2025 JAMB Examination”_Minister

The 2025 UTME, which was conducted in over 700 CBT centres nationwide, saw its results released on May 9. The release sparked nationwide concern after statistics revealed that more than 1.5 million of the 1.9 million candidates scored below 200 out of a possible 400 marks.

“The affected candidates will start getting text messages for reschedule starting from tomorrow.

“I apologise, I take full responsibility.”

JAMB’s decision follows mounting criticism from stakeholders and students alike, prompting swift action to safeguard the integrity of the examination process.