A failed software update during Nigeria’s 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination has exposed significant vulnerabilities in the country’s digital examination infrastructure, affecting nearly 380,000 candidates and raising urgent questions about the reliability of the nation’s education technology systems.
The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, which administers the computer-based university entrance exam, rolled out ambitious technological upgrades for the 2025 UTME. These included source-based scoring and randomised questions designed to curb cheating.
However, a critical patch was not deployed to server clusters in Lagos and the South-East, leading to widespread scoring errors, incomplete uploads, and missing questions, according to a technical review obtained by The PUNCH.
The glitch impacted 157 testing centres, 65 in Lagos and 92 in the Southeast, where outdated servers failed to correctly process exam responses. Over 78 per cent of the affected candidates scored below the 200-point benchmark for university admission, sparking alarm among students, parents, and educators.
“Technology has a history of making it easier to cheat, rig, or tamper with exam systems,” Co-founder and CEO of Schoola Ltd., Abdullahi Muhammad, told our reporter, highlighting the vulnerabilities inherent in digital examination platforms.
The expert leads a startup supported by the Mastercard Foundation EdTech Fellowship Programme, which aims to create a more inclusive and equitable learning environment in northern Nigeria.
His platform, curri-AI, helps teachers generate lesson notes quickly and efficiently.
Muhammad further argued that rigorous oversight of technical processes and thorough evaluation of outcomes could have detected the server update failure early, thereby protecting candidates and preserving trust in JAMB’s systems.
The problem first came to light on May 9, following the release of the UTME results. The Founder of Educare, Alex Onyia, observed unusual discrepancies in student performance through the Educare learning platform.
“There were schools where not a single student scored above 200. That had never happened before,” he remarked on X (formerly Twitter). Onyia later filed a formal petition with JAMB on behalf of affected students, asserting that the widespread inconsistencies could not be attributed to poor academic performance alone.
In response, JAMB commissioned an independent audit led by Educare. The investigation, headed by Engineer James Nnanyelugo, confirmed that the scoring errors were due to the failure to deploy the necessary software patch.
“The Lagos and South-East servers continued operating on outdated logic that could not interpret the newly shuffled question and answer structure,” Nnanyelugo explained.
The faulty patch caused the computer-based testing system to misread candidates’ answers during live exam sessions. The issue remained undetected until after the 17th exam session, by which time thousands of students had completed the test and received flawed results.
An edutech expert who doesn’t want his name in the media warned of deeper systemic problems, stating, “If every year some officials are performing some behind-the-scenes voodoo, then it affects the platform. Without transparency, these issues will keep recurring.”
The 2025 UTME, a critical computer-based test for university admissions, ran from April 24 to May 5. Official data shows that 206,610 candidates in Lagos and 173,387 in the South-East were impacted, totaling 379,997 students.
Alarmingly, over 78 per cent scored below 200 out of 400, the typical university admission benchmark, causing widespread panic among students, parents, and school administrators.
Facing mounting backlash, JAMB Registrar Prof Is-haq Oloyede publicly accepted responsibility, apologised, and announced a free retake of the exam for all affected candidates starting May 16. The rescheduled exams are planned to avoid conflicts with other national tests.
JAMB spokesperson Fabian Benjamin defended the swift retake arrangement, explaining, “If they don’t take the exam now, it means we would have to wait until August, and the longer we delay, the more anxious the students become.”
He also assured that provisions would be made for students who miss the retake for valid reasons, with dedicated staff assigned to handle complaints.
