Education

Oloyede: I Almost Resigned Over 2025 UTME Technical Breakdown

Written by Agboola Oluwafemi on May 22, 2025

News Views: 172

The Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Professor Ishaq Oloyede, has disclosed that he briefly contemplated resigning in the wake of a critical technical malfunction that compromised the conduct of the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).

The UTME results, released on May 9, revealed that over 78% of candidates scored below 200 out of a possible 400—prompting widespread public concern and scrutiny. In response to the national outcry, JAMB initiated a thorough internal investigation, which uncovered a major technical fault that had distorted the integrity of the assessment.

On May 14, Oloyede announced that the error had affected the results of 379,997 candidates across 157 examination centres, primarily located in Lagos and the South-East. He attributed the disruption to a flawed server update implemented by one of JAMB’s technical service providers, which led to a failure in uploading candidates’ responses during the first three days of the examination. The issue went undetected until after the results had been made public.

To address the situation and ensure fairness, JAMB scheduled a resit examination beginning May 16, with sessions continuing beyond May 19.

Speaking at a high-level meeting in Abuja on Wednesday—attended by chief external examiners, civil society organisations, and key stakeholders in the tertiary education sector—Oloyede directly addressed the controversy and public calls for his resignation. Some critics had gone as far as alleging ethnic bias and deliberate sabotage. “When the error came to light, my immediate reaction was to resign,” Oloyede admitted. “However, I was persuaded otherwise. Many felt that doing so would be perceived as abandoning the students at a critical time—and I knew that they would never forgive that.”

Oloyede’s remarks reflect a moment of deep accountability amid an unprecedented challenge, as JAMB continues efforts to restore public trust in the nation’s university entrance examination system.