When the results of Nigeria’s 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) were released last Friday, shockwaves spread across the country. Over 379,000 candidates — nearly a quarter of the total test-takers — had scored far below expectations. Principals, parents, and students cried foul, insisting the results couldn’t be right.
At the center of the uproar was Alex Onyia, CEO of Educare, a Nigerian edtech company whose computer-based testing (CBT) platform had been used by thousands of students to prepare for the exam. His company’s data suggested something had gone terribly wrong with the grading process — and he was determined to prove it.
The Red Flags
Onyia’s phone started buzzing minutes after the results were published. Principals from schools using Educare’s platform reported that high-performing students had inexplicably failed. Educare’s analytics, which had accurately predicted student performance in past years, showed a staggering deviation.
“The metrics didn’t add up,” Onyia said in a statement. “Students who had consistently scored well in mock exams were failing. The only explanation was a technical error.”
To rule out bias, Educare surveyed 15,000 candidates, confirming widespread complaints of system glitches during the test. Unlike Educare’s platform — which provides instant, transparent results — JAMB’s system withheld detailed score breakdowns, leaving students with only a final, unexplained mark.
Pressure mounted on JAMB, Nigeria’s tertiary admissions body, to investigate. On May 14, JAMB’s registrar, Professor Ishaq Oloyede, convened an emergency review with technical teams, including Educare’s engineers. What they uncovered was a critical deployment error.
JAMB had introduced three major upgrades for the 2025 UTME:
- Source-based analysis (validating answers based on logic rather than just response counts).
- Full randomization of questions and answer options for enhanced security.
- System optimizations to reduce lag during testing.
But while these updates were successfully applied in the Kaduna (KAD) server zone, they were never deployed in the Lagos (LAG) cluster, which serviced 157 centers in Lagos and the South-East. As a result, 379,997 candidates had their answers graded against an outdated system, leading to widespread mismatches and artificially low scores.
Facing irrefutable evidence, JAMB apologized and announced a free retake for affected candidates, coordinating with WAEC to avoid clashes with ongoing secondary school exams. Oloyede called the incident a “human error” — not a system failure or manipulation — and pledged stronger validation protocols.
The Broader Implications
This incident highlights two critical issues in Nigeria’s education system:
- Transparency gaps: Unlike Educare’s platform, which delivers results in seconds with full breakdowns, JAMB’s opaque system left students in the dark until public outcry forced accountability.
- Edtech’s growing role: Educare’s data-driven intervention marks a shift in how technology can safeguard fairness in high-stakes exams.
Who Is Alex Onyia?
The 38-year-old University of Nigeria graduate never planned to work in edtech. A self-taught coder, he initially built software for businesses before pivoting to education after a 2014 contract with Lekki British School exposed him to the sector’s inefficiencies. Today, Educare serves 1,400 schools across Nigeria, Tanzania, the UK, and the US.
Despite bootstrapping the company, Onyia has resisted venture capital, focusing instead on scaling its school management and assessment tools. His latest move? Expanding into HR and finance solutions for businesses.
What’s Next?
Affected UTME candidates will retake the exam starting May 17, with JAMB promising stricter oversight. For Onyia, the incident reinforces the need for transparent, tech-driven assessments — and proves that when systems fail, data doesn’t lie.
“This wasn’t about us,” he says. “It was about the students who knew their scores were wrong and refused to stay silent.”