 are preparing to take legal action against the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), citing widespread technical errors and missing exam questions during the conduct of the test.){kind=link}
Thousands of candidates who participated in the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) are preparing to take legal action against the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), citing widespread technical errors and missing exam questions during the conduct of the test.
The controversy follows JAMB’s recent announcement that more than 1.5 million out of 1.9 million candidates who sat this year’s UTME scored below 200 marks out of a possible 400.
The result sparked nationwide concern, with the Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, attributing the mass failure to improved efforts in curbing exam malpractice.
However, education advocate and CEO of Educare, Alex Onyia, disclosed on Sunday that legal proceedings will commence at the Federal High Court on Monday to compel JAMB to address the alleged irregularities.
According to Onyia, over 8,000 affected students have lodged formal complaints regarding issues experienced during the examination.
He demanded transparency from JAMB, urging the board to release detailed mark breakdowns for each candidate.
“Right now, we have received 8,391 individual complaints from students affected by technical issues during the 2025 UTME,” Onyia stated via his X (formerly Twitter) handle, @winexv. “There’s clear evidence that technical failures on JAMB’s part caused serious emotional distress and academic setbacks for these students.”
He added that candidates deserve full access to their performance data—including their answered questions, correct options, and the marking process—so they can raise objections where necessary.
“This is about safeguarding the futures of thousands of students. JAMB must make this process transparent,” he said.
The backlash intensified after JAMB released the official results last Friday. Many students and parents have publicly decried the outcome, linking their low scores to technical challenges faced during the exam.
A candidate who wrote the exam at a CBT center in Maitama, Abuja, told The PUNCH that some of their Use of English questions were missing, and despite reporting the issue, it was never resolved. “I ended up with a score of 170. But the questions didn’t load completely,” the candidate said.
Another candidate, who sat the test on April 26, also expressed shock at her result. “I scored 287 last year. This year, I got 173. Many others who wrote on the same day had similar complaints about incomplete English questions. This isn’t right.”
Parents are also voicing their dissatisfaction. One parent insisted that JAMB should initiate a remarking process, claiming that many high-performing students were unfairly affected.
“These students are known for excellence. Now they’re scoring below 200? Something went wrong. JAMB must address this. It should not be ignored,” the parent said.
As of press time, JAMB had not issued any official comment on the complaints. Efforts to reach the board’s spokesperson, Dr. Fabian Benjamin, were unsuccessful.