Prospective candidates for this year’s Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) and the Direct Entry (DE) programmes who have been battling difficulties in their attempts to register, can now relax as the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has announced a two-week deadline extension for the registration activities.
This is as the body has also shifted the commencement date for the main examination from the earlier dates of June 5 to June 19, to June 19 – July 3.
The mock examination, which was earlier scheduled to hold on May 20, will now hold on June 3.
The registration exercise which had earlier been scheduled to end on May 15, will now end on May 29.
The new developments are contained in a communique issued at the end of a meeting ohosted by the examination body and held between Friday and Saturday.
The JAMB registrar, Is-haq Oloyede, read the communique to journalists in Abuja on Saturday.
PREMIUM TIMES had exclusively reported the possibility of adjustments to the examination calendar earlier released by JAMB.
Mr Oloyede had on Friday commended this newspaper for its “well informed report” on the challenges being faced by the examination body in its efforts to conduct smooth examination as witnessed in the previous years.
The challenges, according to JAMB, are not unconnected to the mandatory use of the unique national identification number (NIN).
Communique
Mr Oloyede, while reading the communique, said only 1,134,424 candidates, comprising both UTME and DE candidates, have so far been registered.
He said the decision was taken to afford prospective candidates more time to complete their registration.
He said: “Desirous of affording prospective candidates more time to complete their registration for the 2021 UTME/DE, which was expected to end on Saturday, May 15, 2021, stakeholders recommended a two-week extension for registration, to now end on May 29, 2021.
“The extension is contingent upon stakeholders’ firm commitment to deliver on their respective responsibilities.
“Accordingly, the 2021 Mock UTME earlier scheduled for 20th May, 2021 will now hold on June 3, 2021 while the main UTME will hold from June 19 – July 3, 2021.
“JAMB will dispatch monitoring teams to all States of the Federation and the FCT during the extension period.”
He announced that computer- based test centres (CBT) should stop selling ePINs, saying flouting the directive would attract ‘appropriate sanctions’.
According to the board, “no CBT centre should collect money for ePIN and registration fees simultaneously”. He warned the centres not to collect registration fee until completion of registration.
The communique added: “Stakeholders reiterated the prohibition of group registration for candidates, with threat of sanction against any CBT centre that violates the instruction. CBT centres are directed to open all twenty (20) allowable registration points to ease congestion at the centres.”
He added that DE candidates should specify their category of admission when procuring their pins. “However, where a DE candidate mistakenly purchases an ePIN for UTME, the selling point is hereby directed to rectify the error by swapping the ePIN to DE at no further cost to the candidate.”
He added; “Digital Service Providers are encouraged to expand their facilities, including the provision of redundancy links.
“NIMC pledged to give priority attention to UTME/DE prospective candidates.
“All prospective candidates and other users who have not received a response from 55019 are requested to send their Tracking ID or NIN to nimc jamb2021@nimc.gov.ng. However, those who had obtained their NIN through unauthorised sources will have to go to NIMC office to resolve their challenges.”
He said NIMC had pledged to deploy special monitoring teams, and to sanction any NIMC agent found extorting candidates in the cause of enrolment.
“Against the background of its below par performance, one of the operators gave firm assurance of the optimisation of its services during the extension of the registration and examination. Stakeholders also implored the Federal Ministry of Education to discourage parents from seeking to register underage and immature candidates to pursue tertiary education ahead of their time,” the communique added.
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