The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has announced that it will release the results of 379,000 candidates who took part in the rescheduled Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) between Friday and Monday.
The release is set for Wednesday.
This update comes after the board decided to reschedule the exams due to widespread complaints about poor performance during the initial UTME.
According to Naija News, JAMB acknowledged that technical and human errors, particularly in Lagos and the South-East, played a major role in the poor results recorded by many candidates.
Out of the 1.9 million students who took this year’s UTME, more than 1.5 million scored less than 200 marks out of 400, raising concerns in education circles.
In response to the mass failure, JAMB launched an investigation. It later confirmed that the problems were due to a combination of system failures and human mistakes.
The JAMB Registrar, Ishaq Oloyede, took full responsibility for the situation. He expressed regret and announced a retake for affected candidates. During his speech, Oloyede became emotional and wept as he admitted the system’s shortcomings and promised improvements.
On Monday, JAMB’s spokesperson, Fabian Benjamin, confirmed to Punch that the results from the rescheduled exams would be out on Wednesday. He said, “The results of the candidates who took the rescheduled exam will be released on Wednesday.”
Earlier, Oloyede had stated that 379,997 candidates were affected by the issues in Lagos and the five South-East states. Specifically, 206,610 candidates in 65 centres across Lagos and 173,387 candidates in 92 centres in the South-East were involved.
Calling the situation an act of “sabotage,” Oloyede said affected candidates had started receiving text messages about the rescheduled exams since last Thursday.
The original UTME results showed worrying statistics: out of 1,955,069 results processed, only 4,756 candidates (0.24%) scored 320 and above. Another 7,658 (0.39%) scored between 300 and 319. Altogether, only 12,414 candidates (0.63%) scored 300 and above.
In addition, 73,441 candidates (3.76%) scored between 250 and 299, while 334,560 candidates (17.11%) scored between 200 and 249. A large group, 983,187 candidates (50.29%), scored between 160 and 199, which is often the minimum requirement for admission into many institutions.
Other figures showed that 488,197 candidates (24.97%) scored between 140 and 159, and fewer candidates scored between 120–139, 100–119, and below 100.
