 branch of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has vowed to take the Joint Admissions){kind=link}
The University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN) branch of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has vowed to take the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) to court over the high failure rate in the 2025 UTME, claiming it was targeted discrimination against South East candidates.
Addressing journalists in Nsukka, ASUU-UNN Chairman Comrade Óyibo Eze said the outcome of the exam has triggered widespread outrage among parents and the public, particularly those from the South East region.
“My office has been inundated with protests, calls and visits by parents and the general public on this deliberate massive failure in the 2025 JAMB examination,” he said.
Eze asserted that the exam results appeared to be manipulated to hinder the academic progression of Igbo children, warning that ASUU will not hesitate to approach a High Court if JAMB fails to adjust the scores to reflect merit.
He expressed concern that students from the region consistently face higher admission thresholds, while others from different regions are admitted with significantly lower UTME scores.
“JAMB knows that children from the South East must score higher before they can get admission, whereas their counterparts in some parts of the country will use a 120 JAMB score to get admission to read medicine in universities in their area,” he said.
According to Eze, over 1.5 million of the nearly 2 million candidates who wrote the 2025 UTME scored below 200, with most of the underperforming candidates hailing from the South East and Lagos, where many Igbo people live.
He urged political leaders in the Southeast to step in and challenge the injustice, stressing the need to protect the educational future of children from the region.
“The governors in the zone should not sit and watch JAMB toy with the academic future of our children,” Eze appealed.
He acknowledged that candidates guilty of malpractice should be punished, but opposed a blanket penalty affecting all candidates at certain exam centres.
“I am not against the board punishing those found guilty of exam malpractice, but JAMB should not, because of these few candidates, fail the whole candidates in an exam centre,” he emphasised.
Eze was particularly shocked by the UTME performance at the University Secondary School, Nsukka, noting that none of the candidates scored up to 200 despite the school’s strong academic track record.
“This school has superlative students who have excelled in academics both inside and outside the school, but how come all of them scored less than 200 in the exam?” he said.
He called on JAMB to promptly re-evaluate the scores to prevent a broader national backlash.
“Ongoing silence may provoke a nationwide protest if the board does not act fast,” he warned.