The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has announced a special mop-up examination for candidates who were unable to sit in the recently concluded 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).
Registrar of the Board, Professor Ishaq Oloyede, disclosed this during a stakeholders’ meeting held on Wednesday in Abuja.
He explained that the mop-up exercise will cater to over 5.6 percent of candidates who missed the exam, regardless of the reasons for their absence.
“This time, we are introducing a fresh mop-up. Even those who missed the earlier exam due to absence will have another chance,” Oloyede said.
“It’s nothing unusual. In any properly run system, when students miss an exam, they are given a chance to make up for it, provided there’s no abuse of the process.”
He stressed that the UTME should be understood as a placement test rather than a measure of a candidate’s intelligence.
“Its function is to rank applicants for limited admission spaces, not to determine how smart they are,” he noted.
Responding to public criticism and unfounded allegations surrounding the examination, Oloyede dismissed claims of ethnic bias or administrative failure.
“I take responsibility, not because I failed, but because leadership demands it,” he said.
“I wasn’t even aware that some people interpreted issues through an ethnic lens. We must move beyond such divisions.”
He also commended both candidates and JAMB officials for their perseverance amid various operational challenges.
“There were constraints, especially in terms of available centres. We knew that dwelling too long on the difficulties would cost students their opportunities,” he added.
The date for the mop-up examination will be announced shortly, with JAMB reiterating its commitment to equity, transparency, and fairness in the admission process.
