Thousands of UTME Candidates to Sue JAMB Over Mass Failure and Technical Glitches
- Thousands of 2025 UTME candidates are taking legal action against JAMB over alleged technical glitches and incomplete exam questions
- Amid widespread concerns, over 8,000 affected students have formally filed complaints, demanding transparency in the marking process
- As frustration mounts, stakeholders call for accountability, while JAMB remains silent on the issue
CHECK OUT: How to Start Earning with Copywriting in Just 7 Days – Even if You’re a Complete Beginner
Thousands of students who sat the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) have initiated legal action against the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) over reported technical glitches and incomplete questions that allegedly disrupted the test.
According to PUNCH, the controversy erupted following JAMB’s announcement that over 1.5 million candidates out of the 1.9 million who sat the exam scored below 200 out of 400 total marks.
Source: Twitter
The results sparked widespread concern, with the Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, attributing the decline to enhanced anti-malpractice measures.
UTME 2025: Students, parents demand transparency
JAMB officially released the 2025 UTME results on May 10, 2025, highlighting that a significant number of candidates had fallen below the expected 200-mark threshold.
While government officials insisted the scores reflected efforts to curb exam fraud, affected students and parents cited technological failures as the primary cause of the poor outcomes.
A candidate who sat the exam in Maitama, Abuja, recounted her experience, stating,
“During my Use of English exam, several questions were missing. I raised concerns, and I wasn’t the only one affected. My final score was 170, and JAMB has yet to address the issue.”
Similarly, another candidate expressed shock at her results, saying,
“I scored 287 last year, but this year, my score dropped to 173. Many candidates who wrote the exam on April 26 faced similar issues with incomplete English questions. This result does not reflect my actual performance.”
2025 UTME: Legal proceedings commence against JAMB
Chief Executive Officer of Educare and education advocate, Alex Onyia, announced on May 11 that legal proceedings would commence at the Federal High Court on May 12, 2025, against JAMB.
Onyia revealed that more than 8,000 affected students had submitted formal complaints, seeking transparency in the marking process.
“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 proving that JAMB’s system was inefficient, thereby causing serious harm to these students’ mental health.”
Source: Original
2025 UTME: Candidates call for immediate action
Students and parents have urged JAMB to disclose detailed marking sheets, allowing candidates to verify their scores. Onyia stressed the importance of fairness, stating,
“The demand is for JAMB to show all students their mark sheets—what they failed, the correct answers, and a clear process to dispute results. The futures of these students depend on it.”
A concerned parent echoed these sentiments, stating,
“We demand a remark from JAMB. These are exceptional students scoring below 200, yet many reported incomplete questions and technical failures. JAMB has not addressed these concerns. This cannot be ignored.”
JAMB yet to address 2025 UTME allegations
Despite mounting pressure, JAMB has yet to respond to the specific complaints raised by candidates. Attempts to reach JAMB’s spokesperson, Dr Fabian Benjamin, for comments were unsuccessful as of the time of filing this report.
With legal proceedings underway and public scrutiny intensifying, stakeholders continue to demand accountability from JAMB regarding the alleged examination flaws.
2025 UTME: Education policy analyst speaks
Education policy analyst, Folaranmi Ajayi, has reacted to the recent mass failure of UTME candidates, blaming technical glitches and server issues at some JAMB centres for the problems.
"Let me begin by stating that there were centres where JAMB experienced server issues, which clearly affected the back-end processing," Ajayi told Legit.ng.
Ajayi pointed to verified cases of incomplete exam papers, saying,
"Certain questions required graphical interpretation, yet students reported that the graphs were missing, leaving them to guess randomly."
Ajayi also discussed a case of Esther Abidogun, whose results, he argued, failed to accurately reflect her performance.
"Esther scored 5A1 and 2B3 in her WAEC exams. In her JAMB Mock Exam Results, she scored an aggregate of 283, yet in the UTME, she scored 183," he noted.
“We must stop attributing mass failure solely to unseriousness among candidates. The stark contrast between WAEC and JAMB outcomes suggests that something more fundamental is broken within our educational assessment system."
Ajayi also urged JAMB to improve transparency, “and allow for honest reviews."
Student decries poor performance in JAMB
Legit.ng earlier reported that a Nigerian teacher cried out as one of his students refused to eat after seeing her performance in the 2025 UTME.
According to the teacher, the student has not eaten for the past 48 hours because her results were poor.
Editorial assistant Ololade Olatimehin provided exclusive commentary from a education policy expert for this report.
PAY ATTENTION: Сheck out news that is picked exactly for YOU ➡️ find the “Recommended for you” block on the home page and enjoy!
Proofreading by James Ojo, copy editor at Legit.ng.
Source: Legit.ng
