Almost 380,000 candidates who sat for the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) should take the check once more, following a serious choice by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB). 

The board introduced that technical glitches affected the examination course of in six states, prompting a rescheduling of the check for all college students concerned.

In line with JAMB, the choice impacts candidates in Lagos, Abia, Imo, Enugu, Ebonyi, and Anambra states that hosted a complete of 157 malfunctioning examination centres. These centres have been flagged after many college students raised considerations on-line and on different platforms about scoring unusually low marks that didn’t match their expectations.

The board confirmed that about 206,610 of the affected candidates sat for the examination in 65 centres throughout Lagos, whereas 173,387 wrote theirs in 92 centres positioned within the South-East area.

After conducting a radical overview, JAMB discovered important technical errors that will have compromised the validity of the ends in these centres.

“We needed to take this step to keep up the integrity of the UTME,” mentioned Professor Is-haq Oloyede, JAMB Registrar, who admitted that the board had recognized severe lapses in the course of the examination course of.

 “We can’t ignore the technical failures that occurred, and equity calls for that these candidates get one other probability.”

Candidates are being notified of the retake by way of SMS, e-mail, and updates to their JAMB profiles. They’ve additionally been suggested to reprint their examination slips to verify their new dates and venues. The retake is scheduled to start on Friday, Might 16.

A serious concern for a lot of college students and fogeys was the doable conflict with the continued West African Senior Faculty Certificates Examination (WASSCE), however JAMB has already reached an settlement with WAEC. 

The 2 examination our bodies at the moment are working collectively to make sure college students taking each UTME and WASSCE gained’t face any timetable conflicts.

This yr’s UTME noticed over 1.9 million candidates throughout the nation, with over 78% scoring under 200 out of 400, a development JAMB says has remained constant lately. Nonetheless, for the board, sustaining the credibility of the examination is extra necessary than any efficiency statistic.

In the meantime, JAMB has reiterated its strict stance on biometric verification. Candidates whose biometrics can’t be verified on the examination day is not going to be allowed to sit down for the UTME and even its mock variations. 

Mother and father and proxies have additionally been warned to not intrude with candidate profiles or registration processes to keep away from errors or mismatches.