By Chinyere Nwachukwu
The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) says candidates who could not sit for the 2023 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) within their scheduled time owing to no fault of theirs.will now take the examination on Saturday.
This is contained in a statement by Dr Fabian Benjamin, Head, Public Affairs and Protocol of the board and issued to newsmen on Monday in Lagos.
According to Benjamin, of the 1,586,765 that indicated interest to sit for the examination, only 80,166 are outstanding.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that this year’s UTME that began on April 25 experienced some technical issues in centres in some states, that made some candidates unable to participate in the exercise within their scheduled time.
“The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has announced that all candidates, who could not sit the 2023 UTME within their scheduled time owing to no fault of theirs, would be rescheduled to take the examination on Saturday, May 6.
“Candidates under this category are principally those who were verified at their centres but could not sit the examination, those who could not be biometrically verified, and those with mismatched data.
“It is equally noteworthy that the board had informed Nigerians that it would be using some novel innovative methods in conducting the exercise, with the aim of completely arresting incidence of examination infractions.
“This has been largely achieved as the exercise recorded the lowest reported cases of infractions, but with equally emerging challenges on account of human negligence which led to some candidates not being able to sit the examination on the first day.
“This notwithstanding, out of the 1,586,765 candidates that indicated interest in sitting the examination, only 80,166 are now outstanding,” he said.
According to him, on the first day of the 2023 UTME, a number of candidates in some centres could not sit the examination, as well as in some centres on subsequent days, due to diverse reasons.
Benjamin, however, noted that though a reasonable number of them had been rescheduled and taken the examination, some had yet to take theirs.
He stated that as part of decision reached at the end of an emergency management meeting held on Sunday, April 30, the board had therefore fixed Saturday, May 6, for all categories of candidates who had not taken their examination.
He listed the categories as unverified candidates, who were registered for the 2023 UTME, without manifesting any biometric difficulty, but could not be verified on the day of the examination.
“These candidates had not previously manifested any fingerprint defect or experienced any biometric challenge during the 2023 UTME registration, but could not be verified to sit the examination on their scheduled examination date.
“These candidates will be taking their examination in Abuja, under close supervision,” he stated.
Speaking further, he also identified another category of affected candidates, which are those who were scheduled to take the examination at the “BEAUTIFUL BEGINNING CBT CENTRE”, Apo in Abuja.
He stated that all candidates who were scheduled to sit the examination at the Beautiful Beginning CBT Centre, Apo, Abuja, but missed the examination for whatever reasons, had been rescheduled to take the examination on Saturday, May 6.
According to him, the rescheduling of all the candidates, who missed the examination is as a result of mistakes made in the address of the centre, which led to some of them missing their examination.
“It should be noted that the name of the centre which is Beautiful Beginning CBT Centre, Apo, Abuja, featured “Gwagwalada” rather than “Apo” hence misleading the candidates.
“As a responsible organisation, the board will not abdicate its responsibilities and has consequently, rescheduled all candidates posted to the centre, who could not sit their examination on account of the wrong address, or any other reason, to ensure that no candidate misses the examination,” he stated.
He said that the other category affected are those that were rescheduled to take the examination on Thursday, April 27, but could not receive the notification or received it late on Thursday night and hence missed the examination.
“Some of these candidates could not receive the notification because their schools held on to their channels of receiving messages, such as their SIM cards, their e-mail addresses and profile codes.
“The board, in spite of its repeated warnings that its processes are not school-based and would not take responsibility for any of such challenge, is bending over backward to accommodate these set of candidates, who have also been rescheduled to sit the examination on Saturday, May 6.
“Also affected are candidates in centres with reduced capacity.
“Among the candidates, who have not taken their examination, are those whose centres could not carry their full capacity of 250, as such, had to be batched with some of these centres taking 150 candidates, rather than the 250 allotted to them per session.
“Some of these remaining candidates in the batched sessions have also been rescheduled and have taken the examination, but some are yet to do so,” he stated.
Benjamin pointed out that other candidates affected are those with mismatched data.
According to him, for obvious reasons, some CBT centres mismatched the data of some candidates they registered.
He noted that this was further made possible by the nonchalance of these candidates who could not avail themselves of the board’s provision of dual screens to monitor the course of their registration.
“These category of candidates could not sit the examination as their mismatched personal details could not be rectified early enough to enable them sit their examination at their scheduled time.
“The process of rectifying their data is ongoing and they will also be scheduled to sit the examination on May 6,” he said.
According to Benjamin, the board will be releasing the results of candidates, who had taken the examination so far, on Tuesday, May 2.
He stated that the board had delayed the release to ensure that all necessary screenings were concluded, besides, ensuring that the mean and standard deviation were reasonably obtained, before the release.
“As candidates check their results on Tuesday, May 2, those who sat the examination but had challenges without being aware of such, would not see their results, but would instead see their notification for rescheduled examination.
“Consequently, all candidates who sat the examination are urged to check their results on or before Thursday, May 8,” he stated.
Benjamin urged all candidates under the aforementioned categories, to print their slips on or before Thursday, May 4, to Friday May 5, so as to know the time and venue of their examination.
He also stated that candidates are to note that they would be grouped at a central location within their respective states, to sit the examination hence the need for them to print their notification slips latest by Thursday, May 4, so as to make sufficient arrangements to sit the examination. (NAN)
