UTME Resit: JAMB to Release Results of 390,000 Candidates Wednesday

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has announced that the results for 379,000 candidates who participated in the rescheduled Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) from Friday to Monday will be released on Wednesday.

This follows significant public backlash over widespread poor performance in the initial UTME.

JAMB rescheduled the examination after public outcry over the high failure rates, attributing the issues to technical and human errors, particularly affecting candidates in Lagos and the South-East states, which had a notable impact on their scores.

Of the 1.9 million candidates who took this year’s UTME, more than 1.5 million scored below 200 out of 400, raising alarm among stakeholders about the examination’s integrity and prompting calls for corrective action.

Following intense scrutiny, JAMB investigated the widespread failures and identified technical and human errors within its system as the primary causes.

JAMB Registrar, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, publicly took responsibility for the errors last week, visibly emotional while announcing that affected candidates would have the opportunity to retake the exam.

Dr. Fabian Benjamin, JAMB’s spokesperson, confirmed to The PUNCH on Monday that the results for those who retook the exam would be available on Wednesday.

“The results of the candidates who took the rescheduled exam will be released on Wednesday,” Benjamin said.

Oloyede previously revealed that 379,997 candidates, primarily from Lagos (206,610 across 65 centres) and the South-East (173,387 across 92 centres), were affected by the UTME technical issues.

Labeling the issue as “sabotage,” Oloyede noted that affected candidates began receiving text notifications for the rescheduled exam starting last Thursday.

From the 1,955,069 results processed in the initial UT ME, only 4,756 candidates (0.24 per cent) scored 320 or higher, while 7,658 (0.39 per cent) scored between 300 and 319, totaling 12,414 (0.63 per cent) in the top score bracket.
Additionally, 73,441 candidates (3.76 per cent) scored between 250 and 299, and 334,560 (17.11 per cent) scored between 200 and 249.

A significant 983,187 candidates (50.29 per cent) scored between 160 and 199, often considered the minimum for university admission, while 488,197 (24.97 per cent) scored between 140 and 159, 57,419 (2.94 per cent) between 120 and 139, 3,820 (0.20 per cent) between 100 and 119, and 2,031 (0.10 per cent) scored below 100.

On Monday, the South-East Caucus in the House of Representatives demanded the immediate resignation of JAMB Registrar, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, citing a “catastrophic institutional failure” in the management of the 2025 UTME .

The caucus, in a statement signed by Iduma Igariwey (PDP, Ebonyi), criticized JAMB for poor communication, inadequate notice for the rescheduled UTME, and scheduling conflicts with the ongoing West African Senior School Certificate Examinations, which they said caused “unnecessary trauma” for students and families.

The lawmakers expressed their concerns, stating, “Last week, particularly on May 14, 2025, the Registrar of JAMB, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, made a shocking public admission that due to a ‘technical glitch’ at some examination centres during the 2025 UTME, approximately 379,997 out of 1.9 million candidates would be required to resit the exam.

“As a caucus, we are deeply concerned, as all five South-Eastern states we represent were directly affected by these so-called ‘score distortions.’

“Over the past week, we have exercised restraint, hoping that JAMB would provide effective remedial measures to address what is clearly a catastrophic institutional failure—one that has severely shaken public trust and the confidence of students and their families nationwide.”

The caucus called for the cancellation of the 2025 UTME and a new examination to be scheduled after the ongoing WAEC and NECO exams to ensure fairness for all candidates.

They also urged the suspension of key JAMB officials overseeing digital operations and logistics, emphasizing that accountability must go beyond mere apologies.

The lawmakers added, “While we acknowledge Prof. Oloyede’s openness in admitting JAMB’s failures, we must state unequivocally that the remedial steps taken so far fall drastically short of our constituents’ expectations,” the statement added.

“JAMB’s knee-jerk, fire-brigade approach has been anything but adequate.

Students in the South-East—many of whom are currently writing their WAEC examinations—were given less than 48 hours’ notice to appear for the rescheduled UTME. Reports indicate that this notice was grossly inadequate, resulting in low turnout.

In some cases, the rescheduled UTME clashed directly with ongoing WAEC papers, compounding the distress and confusion for students and their families.”

Referencing Section 18(1) of the 1999 Constitution, which mandates equal and adequate educational opportunities, the caucus argued that recent court rulings have made this a legally enforceable right for Nigerian students.

They concluded, “Sadly, for the thousands of students across the South-East, the flawed and tainted conduct of the 2025 UTME has effectively denied them that right to equal and adequate educational opportunities.”