The Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr. Benjamin Kalu, has called for an independent and transparent audit of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board’s (JAMB) examination systems following widespread technical failures during the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).
Speaking at a press conference in Abuja, Kalu urged JAMB to engage external experts, including system engineers, academic assessment specialists, and technology auditors; to thoroughly examine its computer-based testing infrastructure. He stressed that the review should cover critical areas such as question delivery, answer validation, and result collation to protect the credibility of the UTME process.
Kalu highlighted that the audit should also incorporate reports from third-party education technology firms that have collected detailed candidate-level data. He emphasized the need to fully understand the scale and impact of the technical malfunctions that disrupted the exams.
Of particular concern, he noted, were the candidates from Lagos and the South-East, who experienced the most severe issues. Kalu called on JAMB to offer a transparent and accessible process for remarking and appeals, especially for students affected by abrupt rescheduling or persistent technical issues during their second sitting.
He also stressed the importance of collaboration between JAMB and other examination bodies such as WAEC, to avoid clashes in exam schedules and ensure students’ academic progress is not hindered. In the interest of public transparency, he urged JAMB to publish anonymized result data and open its systems to Freedom of Information (FOI) requests.
Kalu disclosed that technical reports indicated a critical system patch, necessary for the new answer-shuffling and source-based validation protocols, was not deployed to server clusters handling 157 centers in the South-East and Lagos. As a result, approximately 379,997 candidates were affected, with their results distorted due to validation mismatches.
He explained that JAMB had rolled out three major changes to the 2025 UTME system: a move from count-based to source-based analysis, comprehensive shuffling of questions and options, and backend upgrades to enhance performance. However, while these were conceptually sound, a significant oversight occurred when the necessary patch was applied only to servers in the Kaduna zone, leaving other clusters vulnerable.
The Deputy Speaker clarified that the error was not due to student wrongdoing or intentional sabotage, but a preventable lapse in JAMB’s deployment process. He recommended more rigorous validation procedures and real-time monitoring for system rollouts, particularly during high-stakes exams.
In closing, Kalu reaffirmed the need for JAMB to take urgent corrective action, not just to rectify the present crisis but to safeguard the examination system going forward. His call reflects growing concerns over the reliability of national assessment processes and the need to uphold fairness for all candidates.
