2026 UTME sparks kudos, knocks

The 2026 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination conducted by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, has drawn mixed reactions from education stakeholders, who commended some reforms but faulted recurring technical and logistical challenges.

The examination, which held from Thursday, April 16 to Saturday, April 25, 2026, had about 2.2 million candidates across 966 accredited Computer-Based Test centres nationwide, with a mock UTME earlier conducted on March 28.

Speaking, the founder of Meclones College, Lagos, Ebenezer Mbamalu, said JAMB recorded some progress in enforcing standards during the exercise.

Mbamalu commended the introduction of improved biometric verification and real-time monitoring, which he said helped curb impersonation.

He further praised the adjustment of candidates’ reporting time from 6:30 a.m. to 7:00 a.m., describing it as a safety-driven reform.

“This was to stop teenagers from travelling in the dark,” he said.

He also acknowledged improved support for candidates with disabilities.

However, Mbamalu faulted persistent technical and infrastructural failures across centres.

“Technical failures were still everywhere. In Abuja, one centre couldn’t even run exams simply because the mouse and keyboards were broken,” he said, describing it as inconsistency with CBT standards.

He also raised concerns over unstable power supply and poor internet connectivity at some centres.

Mbamalu said the uneven experience meant fairness was compromised.

“Some centres ran smoothly. Others had long delays that affected performance unfairly,” he said.

He further criticised the absence of an effective complaint system for candidates.

“There is no proper complaint unit. Students who try to report issues find no working portal, no responsive phone line and no physical desk to visit. Their complaints disappear,” he said.

According to him, this reflects a lack of accountability in the system.

Mbamalu recommended pre-examination inspection of CBT centres within 48 hours of exams, immediate suspension of poorly equipped centres, and a central technical command to manage exam uploads and scheduling.

He also called for a public dashboard to show centres experiencing delays, as well as a functional complaint mechanism with guaranteed response timelines.

Mbamalu further urged a review of the underage benchmark score and proposed pre-undergraduate programmes in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and universities.

“Most of these underage students have been roaming the streets for over a year. We need to bring them back into structured learning,” he said.

On his part, the Director of The Dove Academy, Ibadan, Mr Omololu Oyelakin, said improvement in UTME conduct remained marginal.

“There is little improvement in the conduct of UTME this year compared to last year,” he said.

He noted that logistical challenges persisted, particularly in candidate postings to CBT centres.

“Some candidates living in the outskirts of Ibadan still had to travel to the main town or other distant locations,” he said.

Oyelakin added that some candidates incurred heavy transport costs, while others had to sleep overnight near their centres for early morning exams.

He also said technical issues persisted in some centres.

“Some still had issues of computer malfunctioning, switching off of systems and power outages. Those problems still persist,” he said.

However, he acknowledged improvement in the release of results.

“Most candidates saw their results within three days. This is unlike previous years when they had to wait until the end of the entire examination,” he said.

Also speaking, the Director of Education Advancement Centre, Dr Muyiwa Bamgbose, said this year’s exercise showed improvement over last year, except for challenges recorded during the mock examination.

However, he noted, “Nothing deserves commendation. This process has become ordinary in the world of Adaptive assessments and Artificial intelligence.”