Breaking: JAMB Finally Shares Reason for the Generally Low Performance of UTME 2025 Candidates

Legit.ng journalist Ridwan Adeola Yusuf has over 9 years of experience covering education in Nigeria and worldwide.

Bwari, Abuja - The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), on Wednesday, May 14, said a technical glitch affected 157 centres out of the 887 centres in the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) 2025.

Legit.ng reports that JAMB hinged the generally-low performance of UTME 2025 candidates on "a technical glitch".

JAMB reschedules 2025 UTME for certain candidates

To correct the fault, the foremost Nigerian examination agency disclosed that "all the affected candidates will be contacted to reprint their examination slips towards retaking their examinations starting from 16th May, 2025."

JAMB tweeted via its official X (formerly Twitter) page:

"Man Proposes, God Disposes!

"It has been established that a technical glitch affected 157 centres out of the 887 centres in the 2025 UTME. This was basically responsible for the general low performance of the candidates scheduled to sit the examination in those centres.

"As such, all the affected candidates will be contacted to reprint their examination slips towards retaking their examinations starting from 16th May, 2025."

Legit.ng recalls that recently, JAMB disclosed that more than 1.5 million out of the 1.9 million candidates who sat for the 2025 UTME scored below 200 of the 400 obtainable mark.

After the results were released last Friday, May 9, JAMB received what it described as "significant volume of unusual complaints" due to the alleged mass failure.

Many candidates and parents complained of technical glitches and inconsistencies during the examination. They called on JAMB for a review.

Furthermore, some threatened to take legal steps against the examination body while some turned to social media to protest their scores with the hashtag #thisisnotmyresult.

Snapshot of JAMB

JAMB is a Nigerian entrance examination board for tertiary-level institutions that conducts the UTME for prospective undergraduates into the country's universities. The board is also charged with the responsibility to administer similar examinations for applicants to Nigerian public and private monotechnics, polytechnics, and colleges of educations.

All of these candidates must have obtained the West Africa Senior School Certificate (WASSCE) conducted yearly by the West African Examinations Council, WAEC, or its equivalent, National Examination Council (Nigeria), Senior School Certificate Examination, NECO SSCE.

Read more on UTME 2025 and JAMB:

• 2025 UTME results: Man shows how parents stormed JAMB office in Lagos over children’s low scores
• JAMB 2025: 16-year-old Olamide Aderibigbe shines in UTME with 336 score, breakdown of result trends
• Secondary school in Ondo state celebrates as 16 students score above 300 in 2025 JAMB UTME
• JAMB: meet exceptional student who scored 370 in UTME 2025, his result displayed online

UTME: JAMB boss breaks down in tears

Earlier, Legit.ng reported that Professor Ishaq Oloyede, registrar of JAMB, broke down in tears.

Prof. Oloyede apologised for allegedly failing candidates who partook in the UTME 2025 and their parents.

The JAMB boss disclosed that 65 centres in Lagos (206,610 candidates) and 92 centres in Owerri zone (173,387 candidates) were affected, bringing the total number of impacted candidates to 387,997.

Source: Legit.ng