Candidates to Sue JAMB over UTME technical glitches

Thousands of candidates who sat for the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) are set to file a lawsuit against the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board(JAMB), following widespread complaints of technical glitches and incomplete questions that allegedly marred the exam.

Last week, JAMB announced that over 1.5 million out of the 1.9 million that sat this year’s UTME scored below 200 out of the total 400 marks.

The outcome raised concern in the country, with the Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, asserting that the mass failure showed effective anti-malpractice efforts by JAMB.

However, popular education advocate and Chief Executive Officer of Educare, Alex Onyia, announced on Sunday that legal proceedings would commence at the Federal High Court on Monday against JAMB.

Onyia revealed that over 8,000 affected students had submitted formal complaints, calling on JAMB to release detailed marking sheets and allow candidates to verify their scores.

“Currently, we have 8,391 students who have sent in their complaints regarding the glitches in the JAMB 2025 exam,” Onyia posted on his X (formerly Twitter) page, @winexv. “There is ample evidence to prove that JAMB’s system was inefficient, thereby causing serious harm to these students’ mental health.”

He continued: “The demand is for JAMB to show all the students their mark sheets to view their results—what they failed, the correct answers, and a seamless way to dispute it. The destinies of these students are at stake.”

The controversy comes on the heels of JAMB’s official release of the 2025 UTME results on Friday.

According to the Board, more than 1.5 million out of the 1.9 million candidates scored below 200—less than half the total obtainable score of 400—raising national concerns about mass failure.

While the Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, claimed the result reflected the government’s success in curbing exam malpractice, candidates and parents have pointed fingers at JAMB’s technology failures.

A candidate who sat the examination at a CBT centre in Maitama, Abuja, told The PUNCH: “During the examination, for my Use of English, I noticed that some of my questions were missing. I raised the alarm, and I wasn’t the only one with the issue. When my result came out, I scored 170. JAMB has not addressed the missing questions.”

Another candidate who wrote the exam on April 26 said she was shocked by her result.

“Last year I scored 287, this year I got 173. Many others who wrote on the same day complained that their English questions were incomplete. This result is not mine.”

A parent also called for a review, saying: “We demand a remark from JAMB. These are exceptional students scoring below 200. Many complained of incomplete questions and other technical issues. JAMB has said nothing. This cannot be swept under the rug.”

Meanwhile, JAMB is yet to issue an official response addressing the specific complaints raised by the candidates.

Attempts to reach JAMB’s spokesperson, Dr. Fabian Benjamin, for comments were unsuccessful as of the time of filing this report.