THE Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has revealed that 78.5 per cent of candidates who sat for the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) scored below 200.
Out of the total 1,955,069 registered candidates, 1,534,654 scored below 200, the score often used as a benchmark for admission into competitive programmes in most Nigerian federal universities, according to data released by the examination body on Monday, May 5.
The breakdown further shows that 983,187 candidates scored between 160 and 199, translating to 50.29 per cent out of the nearly 79 per cent.
This was as 488,197 (24.97 per cent) scored between 140 and 159, and another 57,419 (2.94 per cent) scored between 120 and 139.
Over 5,800 candidates fell below 120, with 2,031 scoring below 100.
In contrast, just 98,269 candidates or 5.02 per cent, scored above 250, while only 12,414 candidates, representing 0.63 per cent, achieved scores of 300 and above.
The JAMB stressed that results for some groups, including visually-impaired candidates and members of the JAMB Equal Opportunity Group (JEOG), were still being processed.
“A press conference to announce the individual results of candidates and to facilitate result checking will be held later this week,” the report stressed.
Underage performance, absenteeism, and irregularities
The Board noted that 40,247 underage candidates were allowed to sit for the examination in a bid to showcase exceptional potential.
However, only 467 of these candidates, about 1.16 per cent, met the threshold for further assessment in the next three stages of the evaluation process.
The Board also recorded 97 confirmed cases of examination misconduct and 2,157 others currently under investigation for suspected malpractices.
Meanwhile, 71,701 registered candidates were absent from the exam. Several others are facing biometric verification challenges and may be rescheduled once cleared by the Board.
Recall that The ICIR reported that Nigerians faulted the exam body over the missing report of a candidate who was to write her exams at a centre far from her hometown.
The candidate was reported to have gone missing on her way from the Epe area of Lagos to Ajah to write the 2025 UTME.
Meanwhile, in a follow-up post on Saturday, an X user who had first raised an alert about her disappearance disclosed that the missing candidate had returned home.
The incident, including students scheduled for exams at 6:30 am, led to public outcry.
Similarly, a report by BusinessDay on April 26 detailed several cases where students were either forced to wait for hours without writing their exams or had to travel unexpectedly to distant locations due to last-minute centre changes.
Other candidates reported system shutdowns mid-exam, missing questions, and CBT interface errors.
Usman Mustapha is a solution journalist with International Centre for Investigative Reporting. You can easily reach him via: umustapha@icirnigeria.com. He tweets @UsmanMustapha_M