The Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, has revealed that he seriously contemplated resigning following a major technical error that affected the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).
Speaking during a stakeholders’ meeting on Wednesday in Abuja with civil society organisations, chief external examiners, and officials in the tertiary education sector, Oloyede addressed the controversy surrounding the UTME and growing public criticism, including calls for his resignation.
“When it happened, my first reaction was to resign. But I was advised not to, because students would see it as abandonment during a crisis,” he stated.
JAMB had released the 2025 UTME results on May 9, revealing that over 78% of candidates scored below 200 out of a possible 400 points. The board later discovered a major technical glitch, which led to a comprehensive review.
According to Oloyede, a faulty server update by one of JAMB’s technical service providers caused a failure to upload candidates’ responses during the first three days of the exam. The issue, which went undetected before the release of results, affected 379,997 candidates across 157 centres in the Lagos and South-East zones.
To address the error, JAMB organised a resit examination starting from May 16, extending beyond May 19, for all candidates impacted by the glitch.
The registrar acknowledged the emotional and reputational toll the incident took on him, noting that some detractors even alleged ethnic bias and sabotage.
Despite the controversy, Oloyede assured the public of the board’s continued commitment to fairness, transparency, and technological integrity in its examination processes.
