More than 1.5 million candidates who sat for the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) have formally petitioned the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), expressing dissatisfaction over their scores. The candidates, represented by their legal counsel, John Nwobodo, are calling for a full review of the examination process—citing possible technical glitches and errors in the scoring system.
In a petition dated May 12, the candidates are invoking the Freedom of Information Act to request full access to the exam questions and corresponding answers, aiming to verify if what they submitted matches what was marked.
According to Nwobodo, the petitioning group includes:
- 2,031 candidates who scored below 100,
- 3,820 scored between 100–119,
- 57,419 between 120–139,
- 488,197 between 140–159,
- 983,187 between 160–199.
With over 70% of the candidates scoring below 200, JAMB had earlier acknowledged that only around 22% scored 200 and above. This performance rate is among the lowest ever recorded in the history of the examination, sparking widespread concern.
“The statistics reveal the worst failure rate ever in the history of the JAMB-conducted examination, thereby raising public concern and outcry as to the reason behind the baffling and startling poor performance,” Nwobodo stated.
He further noted that many candidates believe their results do not reflect their efforts, suggesting the possibility of a technical fault in the JAMB system, particularly a mismatch between the questions answered and those marked.
“Our clients highly dispute the results as not reflective of their effort, presupposing that there might have been a possible glitch in the JAMB software, potentially resulting in the mismatch between the questions and the answers.”
He stressed that the current system only shows scores per subject and total marks, which makes it difficult for candidates to assess their performance properly. As such, the petition calls on JAMB to make its marking process more transparent by allowing candidates to see the actual questions they answered along with the marked answers.
“The transparency and accountability required of the Board entail a reconfiguration of your system… This approach would either validate the results as published by the Board… or clear the candidates’ doubt,” he added.
The group is prepared to take legal steps if JAMB fails to act, urging the board to re-mark the exams and disclose all relevant details for the sake of fairness and trust in the national examination body.
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