2018 UTME: JAMB Releases Important Information
The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, JAMB, has fixed March 9 to 17 for the 2018 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination, UTME.
It was also gathered that the board has fixed February 6, as deadline for the sale of registration form for this year’s UTME.
The Registrar of the board, Ishaq Oloyede, said this at a meeting with stakeholders on Tuesday, in Abuja Premium Times reports.
The theme of the meeting is “Strategic planning on the conduct of the 2018 Unified Tertiary Matriculation.”
Mr. Oloyede said only 283,319 candidates had registered for the examination.
“Because of the criticisms that trailed the sale of entry form for a month in the past years, the board has decided to earmark two months so that every willing candidate will be able to purchase, fill and submit the forms.
“We opened entry from December 6, 2017 to February 6, 2018, but one month later, only less than a quarter of the two million candidates expected for the examination this year have registered,” the registrar said.
READ ALSO: 2018 UTME: JAMB Bans Pens, Wrist Watches & Other Devices at Examination Centres
He added that the mock examination initially scheduled to hold between January 22 and 24 has been moved to the first week in February due to the ongoing strike by non-teaching staff of universities.
“We are unable to access our CBT centres because most of them are in the universities and non teaching staff are on strike,” he said.
“Regarding the sale of forms, about 10 per cent of the expected candidates have registered, the number of candidates that have registered now is about 283,319,” he said.
The JAMB registrar also banned the use of wristwatches, biros, pencils and other devices from the examination hall.
READ ALSO: “People Called Me A Failure” Msc Holder Who Wrote Jamb 7 Times Shares Inspiring Story
He added that the ban affects both candidates, supervisors and examiners.
“The Board has prohibited additional materials during the 2018 UTME in the examination hall. These include wrist watches, biros, calculator, biros, pencils except the common HB pencil, and any other device that can store data, transmit or receive signal no matter the form.
These prohibitions are not only applicable to the candidates but to all examination officials. The reasons for this will be provided shortly.
Scanned pictures of candidates are no longer accepted for registration, except live capture at the accredited CBT Centres as part of the Registration Procedure.
Furthermore, candidates’ pictures will be embossed on all candidates’ documents generated by JAMB henceforth,” he said.
READ ALSO: JAMB Issues Serious Warning to Prospective 2018 UTME Candidates
The registrar also disclosed that Minister of Education Malam Adamu Adamu has queried 42 institutions for charging candidates more than N2000 for their post-UTME, The Nation gathers.
“There is nothing wrong with post-UTME provided that our candidates are not extorted. The honourable minister of education queried about 42 institutions for charging more than N2000.
We made recommendation to the minister and the minister said all of them should refund the money. He gave them two weeks and all of them are making refund now.
He has put his feet down that all excess charges should be refunded and people can testify to the fact. Where they have the list they are paying them directly and in this case where Vice Chancellors proved clearly that those candidates could not be traced the minister has given appropriate directive.
Candidates are reporting back to us. In one case where they could not, the minister directed that they should pay the money to a non religious orphanage, orphanage owned by the state or anything because those people couldn’t be traced,” the registrar said.
According to him, the figures being paraded as qualified candidates to write its examination was not true.
They try
Okay.