The Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr Benjamin Kalu, has urged for an independent system audit of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) to prevent a recurrence of the issues experienced during the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).
Speaking to journalists in Abuja on Sunday, Mr Kalu urged JAMB to establish an accessible mechanism for candidates to request remarks, particularly for those dissatisfied with the rushed resit or who encountered technical problems during the second sitting.
Expressing sympathy for the affected candidates and their parents over the ordeal they endured, the Deputy Speaker urged JAMB to implement more robust deployment validation protocols and real-time monitoring systems to avert future incidents.
“Every system update must be thoroughly tested and verified across all server clusters before deployment, especially during high-stakes examinations,” he emphasised.
Mr Kalu further called on JAMB to proactively publish anonymised, candidate-level result data for independent verification and to open its systems to Freedom of Information (FOI) requests as a demonstration of transparency and accountability. He noted that such measures would greatly help restore public trust.
He also called for an immediate review of all available technical and independent reports, including those from third-party educational technology firms that have collected candidate-level data, in order to fully understand the extent and implications of the crisis.
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The Deputy Speaker commended the Registrar of JAMB, Professor Isiaq Oloyede, for his courage in acknowledging the errors, stressing that the integrity of any national examination must never be compromised by technical faults.
“This was not a failure on the part of our students, nor a deliberate act of sabotage, but a preventable human error within the system. We must not underestimate the toll this has taken. Parents and candidates have raised valid concerns about the hurried scheduling of resit examinations, the overlap with ongoing WAEC assessments, the psychological stress involved, and the logistical challenges of travelling to distant centres on short notice,” Mr Kalu said.
He assured Nigerians that the National Assembly would continue to perform its oversight role and pursue reforms aimed at improving the nation’s education sector.
