The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has engaged top IT experts and educational assessment professionals to investigate alleged technical glitches that marred the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination.
In separate interviews with newsmen on Sunday, some candidates blamed alleged technical glitches for the mass failure recorded in this year’s UTME.
In the results released by JAMB, 1.5 million out of the 1.9 million candidates who sat the exam scored below 200 out of the total 400 marks.
Popular education advocate and Chief Executive Officer of Educare, Alex Onyia, announced on Sunday that thousands of students were ready to commence legal proceedings against JAMB.
“Currently, we have 8,391 students who have sent in their complaints regarding the glitches in the JAMB 2025 exam,” Onyia posted on his X (formerly Twitter) page, @winexv. “There is ample evidence to prove that JAMB’s system was inefficient, thereby causing serious harm to these students’ mental health.”
He continued: “The demand is for JAMB to show all the students their mark sheets to view their results—what they failed, the correct answers, and a seamless way to dispute it. The destinies of these students are at stake.”
Responding to the concerns in a statement on Monday, JAMB’s spokesperson, Dr. Fabian Benjamin, said the exam body had hired experts to interrogate its system.
He said the move was part of an accelerated system-wide review, prompted by what it described as “unusual complaints” from a few states across the country regarding the conduct of the examination.
“To assist in this process, we have engaged a number of experts, including members from the Computer Professionals Association of Nigeria, Chief External Examiners who are heads of tertiary institutions, the Educational Assessment and Research Network in Africa, measurement experts, and Vice Chancellors from various institutions,” he said.
Benjamin added that the investigation was part of the board’s annual post-examination review, which covers all aspects of the UTME process—from registration to examination and the release of results.
“If it is determined that there were indeed glitches, we will implement appropriate remedial measures promptly, as we do in the case of the examinations themselves,” he said.
While JAMB acknowledged the complaints, it emphasised that the concerns were not widespread but came from a limited number of locations.
Nevertheless, the board assured that all candidates would be given a fair opportunity and that any valid issues would be addressed without delay.
During the UTME period, the board noted, any candidate affected by verified technical problems is typically rescheduled for a new examination date to ensure fairness.
The Punch
