The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has announced that the results for 379,000 candidates who participated in the rescheduled Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) will be made available on Wednesday. The resit, conducted from Friday to Monday, was necessary due to technical and human errors that affected the initial UTME, particularly in Lagos and the South-East. The problems prompted the board to reschedule the exams and led to concerns about the fairness of the original test.
JAMB acknowledged these issues, and its Registrar, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, publicly accepted responsibility for the glitches. He also broke down in tears while announcing the makeup exam for the affected candidates. Prof. Oloyede had previously revealed that the disruptions affected 379,997 candidates, including 206,610 in Lagos and 173,387 in the South-East. He referred to the disturbances as “sabotage” and confirmed that the impacted candidates had been informed via SMS starting last Thursday.
In the first round of UTME, out of the 1.95 million candidates, over 1.5 million scored below 200 marks out of a possible 400, raising questions about the exam’s credibility. JAMB spokesperson Dr. Fabian Benjamin confirmed that the results for the resit would be released on Wednesday, reassuring candidates that the process would soon be concluded.
Only a small percentage of candidates achieved high scores on the first exam. Only 4,756 candidates scored 320 and above, while 12,414 candidates managed to score 300 or higher. Many candidates scored lower, with 73,441 scoring between 250 and 299 and more than half scoring between 160 and 199. The full range of scores reflected the challenges faced during the exam period.
