The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has released the results of the rescheduled 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), revealing an overwhelming failure rate.
According to the board, 99% of candidates who took part in the rescheduled test scored below 200 marks.
JAMB’s Public Communication Advisor, Fabian Benjamin, disclosed that over 336,000 candidates were affected by technical issues during the initial exam.
As a result, these students were rescheduled to retake the UTME across different centres.
However, more than 21,000 were absent.
“Of the 336,845 who were eventually scheduled after isolated good sessions of the affected centres were excluded and their previously unverified candidates were added, 21,082 were absent,” Benjamin explained.
Despite the absence of many candidates, JAMB announced a mop-up examination for those who missed both the original and rescheduled UTME.
This gesture, however, has not lessened concerns over the poor performance trend.
“This waiver is also extended to the candidates who for whatever reason must have missed the initial main UTME,” the board confirmed.
This shocking UTME result failure has sparked national concern, especially among education stakeholders and parents.
JAMB admitted that the exam performance has been consistently poor over the years.
According to the board, only between 11% and 34% of candidates have passed in the last 12 years.
“Despite the ongoing inquiries, performance analysis remains consistent (between 11 per cent in 2013 and 34 per cent in 2016) with results from the past 12 years,” it said.
Moreover, the board pointed to massive irregularities, including cheating schemes involving some students, school owners, and CBT centres, as key contributors to the disappointing outcome.
“While this situation is unfortunate, it has also revealed numerous alarming practices perpetrated by candidates, certain proprietors of schools/Computer-Based Test, CBT, centres, which have exacerbated examination irregularities,” the board added.
To ensure transparency, JAMB said a special sub-committee reviewed and validated the resit results.
The team included the Vice-Chancellor of the National Open University, Prof. Olufemi Peters, and a psychometrics expert, Prof. Boniface Nworgu.
Furthermore, the board released the results of previously withheld underage candidates, noting that those results will not count for admission.
According to JAMB, those students had agreed during registration that their scores would not qualify them for admission due to their age.
“As part of the healing process, the meeting also resolved that the withheld results of the under-aged candidates (except where litigation is involved) who performed below the established standards be released.
Such result does not, however, qualify them for admission, as they had previously signed an undertaking during the registration process,” the board stated.
In another unexpected turn, JAMB granted a one-time waiver to some candidates caught engaging in cheating via social media, particularly WhatsApp.
This act was not an endorsement of misconduct but a step toward fairness.
“This category of candidates were found to have been involved in illicit solicitation of assistance.
The meeting emphasised that its decision is not an endorsement of candidates’ unacceptable acts, rather a once and for all waiver,” the board explained.
“Candidates were thus advised to refrain from joining questionable WhatsApp and other anti-social groups.”
Meanwhile, in the affected South-East states and Lagos, JAMB said only a few candidates scored above 217.
No high scores were recorded from the cancelled sessions, which added to the concern.
“Only a handful scored up to 217 in the affected sessions, while 99 per cent scored below 200 marks, indicating that there were no high scorers in the cancelled sessions of the affected six states,” the board stated.
JAMB also debunked several false claims about high UTME scores making rounds on social media.
A major case involved Olisa Gabriel Chukwuemeka, a student at Adekunle Ajasin University, who falsely claimed he scored 326.
“A notable example is Mr. Olisa Gabriel Chukwuemeka, a first-year public health student at Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba-Akoko (AAUA), Ondo State, who posted on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter) under the handle @swagpriest2, falsely claimed to have achieved a score of 326 in the 2025 UTME,” JAMB said.
“In reality, he sat for the 2025 UTME in Lagos State, where his actual score (prior to withdrawal) was 180.
Following the exposure of his deceit, Mr. Olisa deactivated his account on X,” it added.
JAMB confirmed that all valid results have now been released, except those still under investigation for confirmed malpractice and those due to sit the mop-up exam.
“While releasing the results, it should be emphasised that recent discoveries, particularly by the security agencies, have necessitated the withdrawal of some of the results of implicated candidates across the country whose results have been previously released,” the board concluded.
Omo….. That’s crazy! Looks like bad luck