JAMB to hold UTME in May

Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, Registrar, Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) says the 2017/2018 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) will hold in May.

Oloyede, who was speaking at the 2017 Nigerian Academy of Letters Annual Lecture on Thursday in Abuja, said there was delay in the sales of the forms due to some logistics.

He said that the board had eliminated the use of scratch cards owing to the fact that many students were victims of extortion from cybercafe attendants.

FILE: CANDIDATES WRITING UTME IN ABUJA

Oloyede said that the board was putting in place strategies that would ensure hitch-free conduct of the examinations.

He added that the board had consulted with relevant examination bodies to ensure there was no clash in any examination.

“We have observed that people are selling fake forms but what we are doing is to try to sanitise the system and as soon as the sanitisation is done we will start selling the forms.

“In any case, JAMB has invited other examination bodies, there will be no clash but we want to hold the exams when it is appropriate.

“You also know that if we conduct the examination in March, the result will come out almost immediately but the result cannot be used until August or September.

“So, we have to keep the results and that will give room for people to be thinking it’s possible to upgrade.

“But, if we conduct our examination very close to when the result is needed the possibility or perceptions for upgrading will not be there.

“We need to reassure stakeholders that those selling fake forms are gone. We are not going to sell out forms through the other process.“We will start the sale of the form and by May the examination will be conducted,’’ Oloyede explained.

He said that JAMB would use existing banks for the sales of this year’s UTME to prevent students from being extorted.

“There is no offline registration, people extort students by collecting money from them but the worst is the mismatch of picture, data and biometrics,’’ Oloyede said.

He said that some Nigerians involved in some of the shady deals had been arrested and some were being prosecuted.

Oloyede called on Nigerians to be patient as the forms would soon be out for candidates to purchase.