The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has expressed its full readiness to conduct a hitch-free Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) for this year beginning on Thursday (tomorrow) across Nigeria.
The exam will last one week and take place in a total of 887 centres nationwide with no fewer than 2 million candidates to participate.
Also, more than 10,000 officials have been deployed for the exercise across the country.
The Head of Public Affairs and Protocol of JAMB, Dr Benjamin Fabian, gave this assurance on Wednesday evening at an online media dialogue organised by the Education Writers’ Association of Nigeria (EWAN) to get the candidates and other stakeholders sensitise about the exercise.
According to Fabian, JAMB assigned candidates to exam centres based on their choice of exam towns during registration and no candidate was taken outside their choice towns.
He clarified that what could make any candidate to be taken outside their selected exam towns and which would be the nearest one can only be when the available centres have been filled up at the time of registration.
“And every candidate should know that their exam number, question papers, and other details are usually tied to their exam towns and to sit for the exam elsewhere will work against the candidate and that is why JAMB will never send any candidate outside their choice exam towns.
He also explained that the exam body had also taken full consideration for candidates with special needs by not only making the exam registration free for them but also providing them with necessary support such as free transport, food, and accommodation for those who need these during the exam.
He also mentioned that the candidates are always advised to get to their exam venues in time so as to have enough time for biometric screening and also relax for some minutes ahead of their papers, insisting that the first paper is scheduled for 8.00am and not 6.30am as many people made to believe across the country.
Fabian however, pointed out that the technical hitches recorded during the recent mock exam which he said was to test the preparedness of the exam body and also get participants familiar with CBT exam mode have all been fixed and therefore nothing to worry about.
In his opening remark, the chairman of EWAN, Mr. Mojeed Alabi, highlighted the importance of the dialogue, saying “UTME is very important as it is an entrance exam for further studies in the country and involves millions of students.
He said EWAN would continue to bring educational issues of public importance to the front burner as they arise so as to jointly move the education sector and the country’s economic forward.
He commended JAMB’s spokesman for finding time to partake in the dialogue.
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