abuja—THE Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, JAMB, yesterday said that it could only accommodate 211, 000 out of 267, 000 candidates that applied to sit for the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination, UTME, mock examination.
Its Registrar, Prof. Is-hak Oloyede, disclosed this in Bwari while addressing journalists after visiting some Computer Based Test, CBT, centres in Bwari and Dutse areas of the city.
The board had earlier scheduled February 26 for candidates who wish to write the mock examinations.
According to Oloyede, the board reduced the number of candidates for the mock examination because it did not intend to conduct the examination for more than a day.
“It is not that we cannot have more than this number but because if we are to take the examination in all the areas in a particular town, it will take three days. We can take only what a town can take, that is how far we can go,” he said.
While describing the action as unfortunate, he noted that the board had apologised to those candidates that were not fortunate to be accommodated for the examination.
The registrar, however, assured that the board had put in place measures to ensure effective monitoring of candidates for the examination.
He noted that the board had mobilised 2,000 non JAMB staff, in addition to the 1,600 members of staff on ground across its 602 CBT centres, for effective conduct of the exercise.
Oloyede reiterated the board had banned certain items into the examination halls, adding that it would stop at nothing to fight examination malpractice.
He said: “We urge candidates that it is either you write the examination or you do not write. ’When questions become difficult and you begin to unplug or tamper with the systems, this will not be entertained again.
“We are monitoring each system now and when we discover any logout, it is at the candidate’s instance, then they would have to carry their cross. No more mop up or second chances because we have been able to tackle the logout challenges that occurred in the previous year.”
