LAGOS, Nigeria – A failed software update during Nigeria’s 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) don expose serious weaknesses for the country’s digital examination system, affecting nearly 380,000 students and raising big concerns about the reliability of education technology in the nation.
The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), wey dey administer the computer-based university entrance exam, roll out ambitious tech upgrades for the 2025 UTME. These upgrades include source-based scoring and randomised questions to stop cheating. But wahala come when critical patch no deploy to server clusters in Lagos and the South-East, wey lead to widespread scoring errors, incomplete uploads, and missing questions, according to a technical review wey The PUNCH obtain.
This glitch affect 157 testing centres, 65 for Lagos and 92 for South-East, where old servers no fit process exam responses correctly. Over 78 percent of the affected candidates score below the 200-point benchmark wey be the standard for university admission, causing serious panic among students, parents, and educators.
“Technology don help make am easier to cheat, rig, or tamper with exam systems,” Abdullahi Muhammad, Co-founder and CEO of Schoola Ltd., talk to our reporter. Him dey lead a startup supported by the Mastercard Foundation EdTech Fellowship Programme wey aim to create better learning environment for northern Nigeria. Him platform, curri-AI, dey help teachers generate lesson notes quick-quick.
Muhammad also talk say strict oversight of technical processes and thorough evaluation of outcomes fit don catch the server update failure early, protecting candidates and keeping trust in JAMB systems. The problem show face first on May 9, when dem release UTME results.
Alex Onyia, founder of Educare, observe say e notice some unusual discrepancies for student performance through the Educare learning platform. “There were schools where not a single student scored above 200. That had never happened before,” he communicate on X (formerly Twitter). Onyia later submit formal petition with JAMB on behalf of affected students, talk say the widespread inconsistencies no fit just be poor performance alone.
In response to the situation, JAMB committee one independent audit led by Educare. Engineer James Nnanyelugo lead the investigation wey confirm say the scoring errors dey due to failure to deploy the necessary software patch. “The Lagos and South-East servers continue to work on outdated logic wey no fit interpret the new question and answer structure,” Nnanyelugo explain. The faulty patch cause the computer-based testing system to misread candidates’ answers during live exam sessions.
The issue dey under-detected until after the 17th exam session, by dat time thousands of students don complete the test and receive wrong results. One edutech expert wey no wan show name warn of deeper systemic problems, say, “If every year some officials dey perform some behind-the-scenes voodoo, then e go affect the platform. Without transparency, these issues go continue to show up.”
The 2025 UTME, wey be a critical computer-based test for university admissions, run from April 24 to May 5. Official data show say 206,610 candidates for Lagos and 173,387 for the South-East dey affected, making a total of 379,997 students. Alarmingly, over 78 percent score below 200 out of 400, the usual university admission benchmark, causing widespread panic among students, parents, and school administrators.
Following serious backlash, JAMB Registrar Prof Is-haq Oloyede publicly accept responsibility, apologise, and announce free retake for all affected candidates starting May 16. Dem plan the rescheduled exams to avoid clash with other national tests. JAMB spokesperson Fabian Benjamin defend the quick retake arrangement, explain say, “If dem no take the exam now, e mean say we go need to wait until August, and the longer we delay, the more anxious the students go become.” He also assure say provisions go dey for students wey miss the retake for valid reasons, with dedicated staff wey go handle complaints.
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