Education in Nigeria
Pains, distress mark 2025 JAMB UTME exam
It stretched her imagination and believability, as she kept wondering if it was a dream, or perhaps a line from Franz Kafka’s existentialist vision.
As she pinched herself she noticed she was not dreaming but in real world. The cause of this was her Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) schedule on her Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) portal in April, which slated her paper for 6:30 am. Like many students, Biola could hardly believe what she discovered.
“I couldn’t understand and I began to wonder how they expected me to leave the house early. I was disturbed,” said Biola.
She resided in Aguda Surulere, but JAMB had put her centre in Ajah, a journey of over a hour even at the early time, and she was expected to be there by 6.30 am. Her dad, a printer in Mushin could not understand the logic behind her being sent to Ajah to write her examination in Lagos defined by unpredictable traffic gridlock, and early hours operation of outlaws and petty criminals waiting for victims.
“Initially I thought JAMB committed error with regards to scheduling, but this whimsical thinking of mine soon evaporated when I met my friends, who were posted to far flung areas from where they reside.
This was certainly not her first shot at the examination, but it was, indeed, the first time she would be writing UTME, a few minutes after sunrise.
Her previous attempt did not secure her the necessary cut off point to gain admission to read her chosen course: medicine.
Biola pondered over the conundrum. She lived in a gated street with her parents, which is officially opened around 6:30 am..
Her father did not want to risk it, and decided to look for a rundown hotel in Ajah, where they coughed out N10,000. This was an additional unexpected in this hard times.
Surprisingly, her experience was not isolated as more than fifteen applicants, whose exams were scheduled for 6:30 am, also spent the night there.
Different Strokes
Biola’s experience was a luxury compared to the sordidness of what others went through. Toyin, whose centre was somewhere in Ajagbadi , resides in Ketu. When he confronted the Tutorial centre, where he registered, he was told he registered late, and since the quota had been ‘ filled’, there was no alternative but to make do with what he was given. He was furious.
The tension and anxiety about the unknown centre in an equally unfamiliar neighborhood unsettled him. With much to make comfort out of his dire situation, he went to the centre a day to the exam. He was forced to join a band of night crawlers, who were frolicking in a rundown hotel filled with prostitutes. He just sat down watching how the world rolled by at night and the joy and pains of different characters that populated the universe of that rundown hotel. Around 5 .30 am, he slithered like a cobra out of that hellhole after taking out his toothbrush, washed his face, armpit and teeth and joined the band of JAMBITES at the centre. He cursed under his breath.
Students and parents have condemned the frustrations and near chaos arising from Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), which started on Thursday, April 24, across the country.
Comedy of Errors, Complaints
There have been widespread reports of network and technical glitches affecting the JAMB computer-based test (CBT) centres, delaying or stopping candidates from taking the examination. Many candidates, who wrote their examinations on Friday, April 25,, described their experience as hellish and the worst they have ever seen.
Some noted that questions, especially in Mathematics, Physics, and Commerce, were tougher than expected and highly mentally tasking than expected.
Ugonma Perpetual, who sat her UTME at Mount Gilead Convent at Igando in Lagos State, told Business Hallmark that at her centre, the Use of English had problems, questions one to 10 did not show, but only answers, besides, the number of questions were more than what was stipulated. “Our English, it’s supposed to be one to 60, but it was one to 55, and question one 10 didn’t appear,” she said.
Another candidate, who identified as Nmesoma, shared her anxiety after experiencing a technical issue during her examination, where her computer turned off automatically before she could finish.
“My system automatically turned off on its own. Will my answers be submitted?” she asked.
Saviour Essien shared a frustrating but sadly common experience during this year’s UTME, dealing with long delays despite arriving early.
“Imagine 6:30 am examination, I rushed, so I didn’t miss it, and I didn’t even eat. But 6:30 am examination is 8:00 am,” he said.
Saviour’s narrative signposts the unseen struggles many candidates go through just to keep to time, only to be disappointed at the examination centre.
A candidate narrated how system failure and poor arrangements led to massive delays and confusion at a centre in Rochas Foundation School, Old Airport Road, Jos, Plateau State.
“Me too, I faced the same challenge in Jos, Plateau State, at Rochas Foundation School, Old Airport Road. My examination was for 9 am and I was there before 7:00 am.
We waited for almost seven hours. They had to change our center, and we had to do another reprint. They sent us to another center.
Some people, who had less money, couldn’t afford the transport from our original center to the new one because of system failure.
At the new center, we clashed with people who were supposed to write by 3pm. We waited for them till almost 5:30 pm and didn’t finish till 8 pm
It was a disgrace, and the questions they gave us were not what we expected,” the candidate said.
A parent lamented the frustration his daughter went through sitting the 2025 UTME, “My daughter had a similar problem at Mountain Top University CBT centre, Ogun State.
“She got to the centre early enough for the 2pm examination on Thursday, April 24. I learnt that when the examination started, about six of them, their computers couldn’t process successfully.
I learnt that the affected candidates drew the attention of the centre’s invigilators to move them to other free computers so that they could meet up with the timeline, but they weren’t given attention immediately.
Unfortunately, they kept telling them, “The challenge was from the JAMB network in Abuja,” he lamented.
For many innocent JAMB candidates, April 26 was, indeed a red letter day, a day the dream of a better future perished tragically. That day, a tragic accident on the Oyo-Ogbomoso road in Oyo State claimed the lives of several students, who were on their way to sit for the JAMB examination.
In a video clip seen by Business Hallmark, the incident occurred on the morning of Saturday. It involved a commercial vehicle conveying the students to a JAMB centre in Ogbomoso.
Eyewitnesses at the scene said the crash happened when the vehicle had a brake failure.
“Fatal accident claimed the life of the students that were going to write JAMB in Ogbomosho on Oyo road, Oyo State,” the video was captioned.
Spate of Malpractices
JAMB had noted the 27 impersonators apprehended had been handed over to the Nigerian police for immediate prosecution.
The board also announced that it delisted four Computer-Based Test, CBT centres that had failed to meet the stringent technical standards required for the UTME.
“While JAMB commends the 883 centres that have demonstrated exceptional performance, it unequivocally warns that any centre, which failed the ethical or technical standards, regardless of ownership, will be blacklisted,” JAMB said in a statement on Friday by its spokesman, Dr. Fabian Benjamin.
“Candidates, who were previously scheduled to take their exams at the delisted centres are urged to urgently reprint their examination notification slips to access their new centres and rescheduled dates. We regret any inconvenience this may cause, but we will not tolerate excuses by candidates, who fail to reprint their slip to get their new schedules,” it said.
The board revealed that “As of Friday, 25th April, 2025, over 900,000 candidates have successfully completed the UTME out of the 2,083,600 registered for the 2025 examination.”
UTME is a standardized entrance exam conducted annually by JAMB for prospective undergraduates of Nigerian tertiary institutions.
Applicants are tested in four subjects, depending on their preferred course.
The number of applicants, who register for the exam increases every year.
In 2024, approximately 1.9 million candidates sat for the exam. The number increased to 2,030,627 candidates in 2025.
Some applicants had to travel to other states to write the exam in previous years. JAMB, however, emphasized that it only posts candidates to examination centres within their town of residence in 2025. Business Hallmark learnt that this was not the first time JAMB would schedule exams for 6:30 am.
JAMB defends timing
The JAMB has however, defended its procedures, insisting that examinations officially start at 8:00 a.m., not 6:00 a.m. This is despite the reports on Friday, that a UTME candidate, Esther Oluwafayofunmi Oladele, was missing while commuting from Epe to Ajah, Lagos State, ahead of her UTME.
Esther had texted her sibling a panicked message on Thursday, saying, “I’m scared. I think I entered the wrong car. My eyes are itchy and I feel sleepy,” sparking widespread alarm online.
Johnson, a relative of the student, shared her situation on X, prompting Nigerians to amplify the search. The case was promptly reported to the Ajiwe Police Station in Ajah. Fortunately, Esther was later found safe.
The incident amplified the anger of public already rising over logistical glitches surrounding UTME and Mock UTME scheduling.
Earlier, popular broadcaster Rufai Oseni had shared complaints from worried parents, with one parent saying their child, registered in Osun State, was directed to a remote village in Kwara State for the Mock examination. Another parent in Abeokuta narrated how their child was assigned to Jalingo, far from their registration location.
Peter Obi, the Labour Party 2023 presidential candidate weighed in on the matter. In a statement posted on X, Obi condemned the systemic failures forcing vulnerable teenagers to embark on dangerous journeys for examinations scheduled as early as 6:30 a.m.
Setting exams for vulnerable teenagers at such early hours, making them travel across far-flung and often unsafe locations, is reckless,” Obi said.
He stressed that this reflects Nigeria’s inadequate investment in education, pointing out that Nigeria, with a population of about 230 million, has only around 200 universities — a stark contrast to Indonesia’s 4,000 tertiary institutions for a similar population size.
However, JAMB defended its procedures, saying that examinations officially start at 8:00 a.m., not 6:00 a.m. While verification and clearance processes begin at 6:30 a.m., the exam itself commences at 8:00 a.m.
However, candidates’ printed examination slips — seen by multiple candidates and parents — clearly state 6:30 a.m. as the reporting time, effectively forcing candidates to leave their homes even earlier, often by 5:00 a.m. or earlier in some cases, particularly for those assigned distant centres.