JAMB drops fresh announcement for candidates who missed 2025 UTME

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has announced a new round of mop-up examinations to accommodate the over 5.6 per cent of candidates who were unable to sit for the recently concluded 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME). Disclosing this at a stakeholders’ meeting in Abuja on Wednesday, JAMB Registrar, Professor Ishaq Oloyede, said the fresh mop-up would provide a second chance for all affected candidates, irrespective of the reasons for their absence. This time, we are creating a new mop-up. Even those who missed the earlier exam due to absence will get another opportunity,” he said. It’s not extraordinary. In any serious system, when students miss an exam, they’re allowed to make up—provided there’s no abuse,” he added. Clarifying the purpose of the UTME, Oloyede noted that the exam is designed strictly as a placement test and not a measure of intelligence or academic potential. “Its purpose is to rank candidates for limited admission slots, not to test how smart someone is,” he said. In response to mounting criticism and allegations of ethnic bias and administrative failure in the conduct of the 2025 UTME, the JAMB boss firmly dismissed such claims. “I take responsibility, not because I failed, but because that’s leadership,” Oloyede said. “I didn’t even realise people viewed issues around me through ethnic lenses. We must rise above such profiling,” he stated. He commended both candidates and JAMB staff for their resilience despite operational and logistical setbacks. We had limited space. We knew if we wasted more time grieving the challenges, students would lose their opportunity,” he said. The Punch reports that JAMB has assured the public that a date for the special mop-up examination will be announced soon, affirming its unwavering commitment to transparency, fairness, and equal opportunity in the admissions process.