In a move to ensure inclusivity and fairness, the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has announced plans to conduct an additional mop-up examination for candidates who missed the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), regardless of the reasons for their absence.
JAMB Registrar, Prof. Is-haq Oloyede, made this known during a stakeholders’ meeting in Abuja on Wednesday, where he addressed the challenges encountered during this year’s UTME.
He revealed that the board would accommodate the estimated 5.6 per cent of candidates who missed the initial examination window.
“Normally, we hold one mop-up nationwide for those with one issue or the other. But this time, we are creating a new mop-up. Even those who missed the earlier examination due to absence, we will extend this opportunity to them,” Oloyede explained. “It’s a standard practice in classrooms to conduct makeup tests. We just won’t tolerate abuse of the process.”
The registrar clarified that UTME remains a placement test designed to rank candidates for admission slots in tertiary institutions—not an achievement test or a sole measure of intelligence. He added that admissions depend on a combination of UTME scores, post-UTME performance, and internal assessments by institutions.
Responding to criticism and conspiracy theories surrounding the 2025 UTME results, Oloyede reaffirmed JAMB’s commitment to transparency and integrity.
He dismissed claims of incompetence, ethnic bias, or administrative failure, attributing the technical hitches experienced during the exercise to isolated incidents rather than systemic flaws.
“I accepted responsibility not because I do not know how to do the work, but because I lead the team. Throwing dedicated staff under the bus because of one incident is not leadership,” he said.
He also condemned attempts by some commentators to exploit the situation for ethnic or political narratives, calling on stakeholders to desist from ethnic profiling in education discourse.
While acknowledging the emotional toll the situation has taken on candidates and their families, Prof. Oloyede praised the resilience of students who pressed on despite challenges, and commended his team for their continued dedication.
JAMB is expected to release detailed guidelines and dates for the mop-up exam in the coming days.
