Those who missed UTME will retake it - JAMB

he Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board
(JAMB) yesterday said that the board would
reschedule examination for candidates who
missed the Unified Tertiary Matriculation
Examination because of relocation of centres by
the board.
The board said it relocated 59, 000 candidates in
15 states because of problems in some of the
centres.
It also said candidates who had system failure
during the examination would retake it, if the
board finds their complaint to be genuine.
The Registrar of the board, Prof. Dibu Ojerinde,
who said this at a press conference in Abuja
yesterday, added that the new development does
not affect candidates who missed the
examination deliberately or failed in the
examination.
He said among the 1,546,633 candidates that sat
for the 2016 UTME, 145, 704 had issues of
multiple results which have been resolved by the
board.
Prof. Ojerinde added that 23, 577 candidates
were absent on the day of the examination.
“We relocated candidates where the board had
challenges. The board is looking at some of the
issues raised during the examination, but most of
the excuses raised by candidates are flimsy,” he
said.
“We relocated about 59, 000 candidates due to
the problems in various centres which vary from
town to town. There are about 59,000 of them
spread across 15 states of the federation.
“Those that were relocated never suffered any
setback or inconvenience. For all these two sets of
people, I want to apologise sincerely for what
happened to them, but we are going to put on a
redress for those whose relocation affected them
in missing their examination.
“Let me use this opportunity to offer explanation
on the issue of the much-publicized two results.
The process of our marking involves
transformation and other qualitative
programming. In the process of these
configurations, we had a little challenge which we
quickly corrected and ensured that this never
happened in subsequent results. This challenge
was only associated with the candidates that sat
for this examination on Saturday, 27, and some
candidates of Monday, 29 February, 2016.”
Prof. Ojerinde said the board found out that
some of the over 500 centres used for the CBT
was compromised by the operators.
He said that one of its centres in Uromi, Edo State
was invaded by mercenaries during the
examination.
He blamed the education consultants for
mobilizing candidates to protest against the
conduct of the examination by the board, adding
that the quality of the centres used for UTME
would not be compromised.
“In our quest to have adequate and effective
centres for the exercise, we approved over 500
centres, but unfortunately, some of the centre
operators were not sincere in proving us with the
true position of their facilities.
“They hired equipment during the period of
accreditation and other necessary apparatus and
on the examination day, they were found
wanting. This led to relocation or rescheduling of
candidates from some of them to more suitable
centres.
He said Nigeria was ready to take the CBT
examination, adding that reverting to the PPT as
directed by the House of Representatives would
amount to lack of progress.
According to him, the CBT would be improved
upon.
“Even the physically challenged are taking the CBT
examination. One of the blind candidates scored
286, so why should others complain?
“Going back to the Paper and Pencil Test will
amount to taking one step forward and two steps
backwards,” he said.