ABUJA – The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has initiated the process of rescheduling its Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) for a large number of students. This urgent action impacts 379,997 candidates. The JAMB exam reschedule 379997 candidates is a direct response to admitted errors that occurred in 157 examination centers. These centers are spread across Lagos and the South-East region.
JAMB Registrar, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, made this announcement during a press briefing on Wednesday. He confirmed that the issues affected 206,610 candidates in 65 centers in Lagos. Another 173,387 candidates across 92 centers in the South-East (Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu, and Imo states) were also impacted.
Notifications and Next Steps for Affected Candidates
Professor Oloyede extended an apology for the significant inconvenience caused by these errors. He personally took full responsibility for the shortcomings in the examination process. “The affected candidates will start getting text messages for reschedule starting from tomorrow. I apologize, I take full responsibility,” he clearly stated.
A source within JAMB informed National Scoop that the rescheduling effort commenced on Thursday morning. Candidates whose exams have been rescheduled will be contacted directly by JAMB. These important notifications will be sent via SMS and email. The messages will instruct candidates to reprint their examination slips to see their new test dates, times, and centers. This reprinting step is crucial for the JAMB exam reschedule 379997 candidates.
To illustrate, one affected candidate has already been assigned a new exam slot. Her rescheduled test is now set for Saturday, May 17, 2025, at 12 noon. It will take place at one of the Lagos centers located in the Igando community.
Root Cause of UTME Errors and Overall Statistics
The widespread errors that necessitated the JAMB exam reschedule 379997 candidates have been traced to a specific technical problem. A defective software patch, applied by one of JAMB’s technical service providers, reportedly caused the issue. This faulty patch led to an incomplete upload of many candidates’ exam responses.
The 2025 UTME was a massive exercise, with over 1.9 million candidates sitting for the examination nationwide. Data revealed that more than 1.5 million of these participants scored below 200 out of a total of 400 marks. JAMB has given strong assurances that all candidates affected by the errors will be given a fair opportunity to retake their test. This commitment aligns with the board’s established procedures for handling such examination irregularities.
By Abiodun Labi
