The results of the candidates who took the rescheduled exam will be released on Wednesday
The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has announced that it will release the results of 379,000 candidates who participated in the rescheduled Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) on Wednesday. These candidates took the exam between Friday and Monday after the original UTME was rescheduled.
The rescheduling came in response to widespread public outcry over an unusually high failure rate in the initial UTME sitting. JAMB acknowledged that technical glitches and human errors—particularly in Lagos and the South-East states—significantly compromised the integrity of the examination and negatively impacted candidates’ performances.
This year, approximately 1.9 million candidates sat for the UTME. However, over 1.5 million of them scored below 200 marks out of a possible 400, sparking serious concerns among education stakeholders about the credibility of the examination.
Under pressure, JAMB conducted an investigation into the mass failure and confirmed that errors within its systems were to blame. The Registrar of JAMB, Professor Ishaq Oloyede, publicly accepted responsibility for these lapses last week. During the announcement of the resit, he visibly emotional, even shedding tears, underscored the board’s commitment to fairness by offering affected candidates another opportunity to sit the exam.
In an interview with The Punch on Monday, JAMB spokesperson Dr. Fabian Benjamin reaffirmed that the results of the rescheduled exams would be officially released on Wednesday. He stated, “The results of the candidates who took the rescheduled exam will be released on Wednesday.”
Earlier, Professor Oloyede revealed that the glitches impacted 379,997 candidates across Lagos and the five South-East states. Specifically, 206,610 candidates in 65 examination centers in Lagos and 173,387 candidates in 92 centers in the South-East were affected. He described the situation as an act of “sabotage.” To keep candidates informed, notifications for the rescheduled exam began being sent out via text messages starting last Thursday.
From the original UTME results processed for 1,955,069 candidates, only 4,756 candidates (0.24%) scored 320 marks and above. An additional 7,658 candidates (0.39%) scored between 300 and 319, making a total of 12,414 top-tier scorers (0.63%) with marks of 300 and above.
Meanwhile, 73,441 candidates (3.76%) scored between 250 and 299 marks, and 334,560 candidates (17.11%) scored between 200 and 249 marks. Notably, more than 75% of all candidates scored below 200 marks, raising nationwide concerns about the fairness, reliability, and overall credibility of the UTME grading and administration process.