The Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has revealed that the conduct of 2020 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examinations (UTME) will commence on March 14 to April 4, 2020.
The Board has also insisted that the National Identification Number (NIN) issued by the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) is a compulsory requirement for registration for the 2020 UTME.
JAMB Registrar, Professor Ishaq Oloyede, made this known on Monday at a meeting with State Commissioners of Education in Abuja, as part of stakeholders’ consultations in preparation for the examination.
He disclosed that the registrations for its mock examinations would hold between January 13 and February 1 while the mock examinations would hold on February 18, 2020.
He also disclosed that the registration for the 2020 UTME and Direct Entry would also run simultaneously between January 13 to February 17.
ALSO READ: Teenager docked for alleged phone theft in examination hall
While stressing on the need for candidates to obtain NIN as a compulsory requirement for the registration, Oloyede said the board would collaborate with the National NIMC as directed by the National Assembly and Federal Executive Council to ensure compliance in the conduct of 2020 UTME.
He advised candidates to approach any NIMC enrollment centre to obtain their NIN number to be able to register for its examinations.
He further explained that the board made it mandatory for a candidate to register with NIN so as to eliminate multiple registration discovered during the 2019 registrations.
He said: “Everybody must rise up and support NIMC. We are also bringing in Computer Professional Registration Council of Nigeria (CPN) to help in monitoring the Computer Based Centres (CBT).
“We also have the advantage of the Galaxy Backbone. Each of the CBT centres have been mapped with NIMC enrolment centres.
“Over 40 per cent of candidates have already obtained their NIN. This will ease our job because those who have not been able to register can now be transported to NIMC centres at the point of registration.”
“Our experience last year showed that some candidates registered multiple times so as to perpetrate impersonation. This is because exam malpractices start at the point of registration.
“JAMB needs full collaborations of states education commissioners to help sensitise candidates in their various states on the need and importance of the NIN for 2020 registration.
“We have called you to inform you about our preparedness towards the conduct of the 2020 UTME and to pay attention to public examinations in your states and be conscious of the proliferation of exam centres to perpetrate exam malpractices, ” he said.
Oloyede added that the board had put in place a Central Admission Processing System (CAPS) designed to prevent institutions from unilaterally changing or proposing a candidate for admission into the programme or courses other than his/her chosen course.
He observed that some institutions had devised a method of offering admission to candidates outside CAPS on their designated portals saying any institution doing this was putting the future of such candidate into jeopardy.
He, therefore, said that JAMB mandate required that in placing candidate, preference must be given to the candidate chosen course.
On the trending issue on social media of how one Miss Goodness Thomas who scored 302 was denied admission by the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria to study a course of her choice, and was instead given Human Anatomy, Oloyede said she did not meet the merit score for admission into ABU.
“The girl from Niger state who scored 302 is a good mark in Niger but not a good mark for medicine in Nigeria.
“The university did well by offering her anatomy. She came third from Niger and the university picked the first two candidates from her state so she did not meet the merit score for ABU,” Oloyede added.
and then