THE Head of the Public Affairs and Protocol Unit of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Fabian Benjamin, has said the examination body is currently reviewing the details of the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) conducted so far.
Benjamin said this on Thursday after observing the ongoing examination in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), adding that as soon as all the required review steps were concluded, results of candidates who sat for the examinations which commenced on Tuesday will be released.
“We are in a meeting now. We are looking at the results and by the grace of God, very soon we will release the first batch of results,” he said, describing the conduct of this year’s examination as ‘one of the best’ JAMB has conducted in recent times.
He said despite the hitches recorded at the commencement of the examinations nationwide on Tuesday, in about 100 computer-based test centres, which led to rescheduling of the examination for the affected candidates, this year’s exercise still remains one of the best.
“This is one of the best examinations we’ve had over a period of time. I know that many will want to contest that fact because of what happened on Tuesday. But if you have been in the system and followed our exercise over a period of time, you will know that the first exams are always turbulent and then as we progress, we stabilise and we continue the exercise,” Benjamin said.
He said out of the 947,000 candidates who had taken the test since Tuesday, only 64,000 have so far experienced hitches “and the board has rescheduled their tests for other sessions.”
Almost 1.6 million candidates seeking admission into Nigerian universities, polytechnics, colleges of education and monotechnics, are expected to take the tests before Tuesday, May 2, 2023.
“So, for an exercise, if you are going to give a pass mark, out of 947,000, you have issues in about 60,000 I think it’s a fair share,” he said, adding that while the board cannot promise Nigerians that technical hitches will not be experienced, there is the assurance that all candidates who registered for the exams will be given the opportunity to take the tests.
“On the first day there were some candidates who were not able to sit for their exams because of some technical issues and we have rescheduled those candidates. Some of them are taking it as the fourth session and some of them will take it tomorrow,” he said.
“So, we also urge candidates, particularly those who couldn’t sit for yesterday’s exercise to continue to check their profile to print their slips as they will be rescheduled to take the examinations.”
