The Education Rights Campaign (ERC) has described the mass failure in the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) as a reflection of the collapse of public education in Nigeria.
The group accused the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) of inefficiency and demanded financial compensation for affected candidates, as well as urgent measures to address the board’s shortcomings.
The campaign recalled that JAMB, under the leadership of Registrar Prof Is-haq Oloyede, recently admitted to errors in the results released for nearly 380,000 candidates from Lagos and five Southeast states.
It was noted that the admission of errors by the examination body came after widespread public outrage over the mass failures that had been recorded, which has become a recurring issue with the conduct of the UTME.
In a statement jointly signed by Comrade Ogunjimi Isaac, Deputy National Coordinator and Adaramoye Michael Lenin, National Mobilisation Officer, the ERC criticised Oloyede’s public apology, dismissing it as “crocodile tears” and insufficient to absolve the examination body of accountability.
“Probably, left to Oloyede and his team, they would have continued to live in denial while placing the blame on innocent candidates,” the statement reads.
The ERC welcomed the decision to allow affected candidates to retake the examination, but raised serious concerns about the timing.
JAMB has scheduled the fresh examination to begin on Friday, May 16, 2025, a date that the ERC says does not take into account the ongoing West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE), in which many affected candidates are also participating.
“The excuse of the Registrar that the candidates are already prepared because of WAEC is fallacious,” the ERC stated, explaining that UTME and SSCE differ significantly in structure and preparation requirements.
The group demanded that the fresh examinations be postponed until after the conclusion of the SSCE in June, pointing out that university admissions processes generally do not begin until September, leaving sufficient time for preparations.
The ERC called on JAMB to provide financial compensation to all affected students, citing the significant logistical and emotional costs the board’s error has imposed on the candidates.
Beyond the immediate issue, the ERC linked the mass failure to systemic problems in the education sector. It pointed out that over 78 per cent of candidates scored below 200, attributing this to JAMB’s shortcomings and the longstanding neglect of public education.
“JAMB’s inefficiency is connected to the collapse of public education. Despite over a decade of computer-based testing, most public schools lack basic ICT infrastructure,” the statement noted.
The ERC urged Nigerians to demand a better-funded and democratically managed education system, warning that continued inaction by the government, particularly under the current administration of President Bola Tinubu, will only worsen the crisis.
