By Nnenna Agbai
‘..On paper, these changes were laudable. Early results even suggested success, with JAMB recording its highest UTME scores in 15 years’.
The story of the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) should have been one of progress, a strong statement about Nigeria’s commitment to fairer, more secure, and technologically advanced testing. Instead, it exposed how a single missed software update nearly shattered the futures of 380,000 students, revealed gaping flaws in the system, and, in an unthinkable tragedy, pushed one depressed student past the brink.
The crisis, according to findings by the Deputy Speaker of House of Representatives, Benjamin Kalu,
began quietly, buried in lines of code. The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) had introduced three groundbreaking reforms for the 2025 exams. First, the board moved from a simplistic count-based analysis, where sessions were validated based on the volume of answers submitted to a sophisticated source-based model, scrutinising the logic behind responses to detect anomalies. Second, it implemented full question-and-answer shuffling, ensuring no two candidates in the same room received identical test permutations, a long-overdue anti-cheating measure. Third, system optimisations were rolled out to reduce lag, a persistent complaint in previous Computer-Based Tests (CBT).
On paper, these changes were laudable. Early results even suggested success, with JAMB recording its highest UTME scores in 15 years.
But beneath the surface, a critical failure was unfolding. The system patch required to support these upgrades had been deployed in Kaduna’s server cluster (KAD) but inexplicably skipped the Lagos cluster (LAG), which also serviced the South-East. For 157 exam centres, 65 in Lagos and 92 across the South-East, this meant disaster. Unpatched servers, running outdated logic, could not properly process the new answer-validation protocols. This resulted to nearly 380,000 candidates who had their responses mismarked, their scores distorted, and their futures thrown into limbo.
The human cost was staggering. Parents and students, already under immense pressure, erupted in outrage when the flawed results were released. Social media flooded with distress calls; protest lines formed outside JAMB offices. Then came the darkest moment: a candidate, crushed by the weight of the unfolding chaos, took their own life. The tragedy underscored what raw data could not, this was not just a technical failure, but a systemic betrayal of trust.
To its credit, JAMB’s leadership, led by Registrar, Professor Ishaq Oloyede, acted swiftly once the error was detected. Public apologies were issued, retakes were organised, and affected candidates were given a second chance. But the damage ran deeper than a rescheduled exam could repair. The retakes themselves became another ordeal, with reports of poor coordination, fresh technical glitches, and clashes with ongoing West African Examinations Council (WAEC) tests. Students who had already endured one traumatic exam now faced another, this time under even greater psychological strain.
Investigations revealed the full scope of the oversight. JAMB’s internal audits, alongside independent analyses by groups like the Educare Technical Team, confirmed that over 14,000 sampled complaints originated from regions dependent on the faulty LAG servers. The glitch was undeniable and, crucially, preventable. A routine validation check, a more rigorous deployment protocol, or even a real-time monitoring system could have averted the crisis.
The Deputy Speaker’s address to the nation struck a balance between accountability and a call to action. While commending JAMB’s transparency in admitting the error, he emphasised that apologies and retakes were not enough. His recommendations laid bare the need for structural reform: an independent audit of JAMB’s infrastructure, transparent data releases for public scrutiny, better safeguards for affected candidates, and, most critically, real-time monitoring to prevent future lapses.
But beyond policy prescriptions, the Deputy Speaker’s speech carried a deeper message about trust. National exams are more than administrative exercises; they are a covenant between the state and its youth. When that covenant is broken, the repercussions echo far beyond botched scores. They erode faith in institutions, deepen societal fractures, and, at their worst, cost lives.
The 2025 UTME crisis will be remembered not just for its technical failures, but for how Nigeria responds to them. Will it be a wake-up call that finally modernises the country’s examination systems? Or will it join a long list of avoidable disasters, repeated until the next scandal forces another round of hollow promises?
For the students who lived through this ordeal, especially those who sat in unpatched exam halls, unaware their answers were being misread, the answer must be the former. They deserve more than damage control. They deserve a system that recognises their effort, protects their dignity, and, above all, works as hard as they do.
Nnenna Agbai wrote from Abuja.
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