Rescheduled UTME: 99% of Candidates Score Below 200

The Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has announced that 99 per cent of the 336,845 candidates that sat for the rescheduled Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination in Lagos and the five South East states scored below 200.

This translates to 333,477 candidates who polled below 200 out of a maximum score of 400.

In a statement released on Sunday by JAMB’s Public Communication Advisor, Dr. Fabian Benjamin, the examination body noted that “only a handful scored up to 217 in the affected sessions.”

Releasing the rescheduled UTME results on Sunday after the initial server glitches that marred the exercise in six states of the Federation, Dr. Benjamin said there were no high scorers in the cancelled sessions of the affected states.

He said: “The misleading questions posed by certain individuals regarding candidates who allegedly scored highly in the cancelled sessions who might desire to retain their previous results are totally unfounded, as only a handful scored up to 217 in the affected sessions, while 99% scored below 200 marks — indicating that there were no high scorers in the cancelled sessions of the affected six states.”

According to the spokesperson, the explanation became necessary following those it referred to as ‘opportunists’ throwing ‘misleading questions’ at it regarding candidates who allegedly scored highly in the cancelled sessions and might desire to retain their previous results.

“It is not unexpected that, given our circumstances, some opportunistic and mischievous individuals may attempt to exploit the situation for personal gain, thereby attempting to discredit not only the CBT process but also the Board itself,” he stated.

He disclosed that “all results are now released except those of candidates who committed examination infractions and those slated for mop-up examinations.

“While releasing the results, it should be emphasised that recent discoveries, particularly by the security agencies, have necessitated the withdrawal of some of the results of implicated candidates across the country, whose results had been previously released.

“Candidates with earlier released results need not recheck their results, as candidates affected by the withdrawal are being notified through text messages on their registered lines, their profiles, and emails.”

The Board emphasised that the charges for short code 55019/66019 (text messages) do not generate revenue to JAMB as being peddled in some quarters.