The Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has stated that it will conduct an immediate review of the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) following a wave of public complaints alleging technical glitches and incomplete questions as part of the reasons for the unusually low scores in this year’s examination.
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In a statement signed by the board’s public communication advisor, Fabian Benjamin, issued amid reports that thousands of test takers are preparing to file a class-action lawsuit against the board over alleged irregularities in the examination, the board acknowledged what it described as an “unusual volume of complaints” since the results were released last Friday.
“We are particularly concerned about the unusual complaints originating from a few states within the federation. We are currently scrutinising these complaints in detail to identify and rectify any potential technical issues,” the statement reads.
The spokesperson explained that the annual review covers three stages of the UTME cycle-registration – examination, and result release. He said that if any faults are found in the system, JAMB would not hesitate to implement “appropriate remedial measures.”
“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.
“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.”
Threat of Legal Action by Candidates
Many candidates for this year’s UTME claim they encountered technical malfunctions and inconsistent question displays during the examination. In an interview with BBC News Igbo, some alleged that their English Language examination was missing questions 1-10, only the options were made available. While some other test takers claimed on social media that they scored better in their pre-examination (mock) test.
The controversy reached a boiling point after JAMB revealed in its viral statistical data that over 1.5 million out of the 1.9 million candidates who sat for this year’s UTME scored below 200 out of a possible 400 marks.
This statistic triggered national concern and social media uproar, leading to reports of an intended class-action by some of the candidates.
In a post made by Mr Alex Onyia on his verified X page, he claimed that so far, about 13,955 have reported anomalies. As such, they intend to take legal action.
“We have taken our first legal step towards JAMB using the Freedom of Information Act.
“We need the mark sheet of all students released to them for review, and also review all the glitches earlier raised, especially on the 24th, 25th, 26th, and 28th of April.
“JAMB has seven days to respond to this and provide a convincing solution, or we proceed fully to litigation.
“I currently have 13,955 students who have reported the anomaly, and this must be resolved once and for all.”
The hashtag #ThisIsNotMyResult has been trending across platforms, with candidates and parents expressing shock over the low scores.
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