For applicants who encountered problems at their testing centers, the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has once more delayed the computer-based Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examinations (UTME).
The affected applicants, whose failure to take the examinations was not their fault, will now take the test on Saturday, May 6, according to a statement from JAMB spokesperson Fabian Benjamin on Monday.
He said that the choices made at the JAMB management’s emergency meeting on Sunday included the development.
Only 80,166 of the 1,586,765 applicants who expressed interest in taking the exam remain unaccounted for, according to JAMB.
For applicants who encountered technological difficulties on exam day, the board postponed tests last Tuesday, setting new dates between April 26 and May 2.
Fresh Date
Mr. Benjamin stated, “The Board has set Saturday, May 6, 2023, for all categories of applicants who have not sat their test, as specified below, to take their examination. These decisions were made at the conclusion of an emergency management meeting conducted on Sunday, 30th April 2023.
In order to know the timing and location of their exam, he instructed the concerned applicants to print their slips by Thursday at the latest.
Candidates Affected
Mr. Benjamin identified the kinds of applicants who were impacted, including those who were validated at their centers but were unable to take the exam, those who were unable to be confirmed using biometrics, and those whose data did not match.
The Federal Capital Territory (FCT) of Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, would host the first categories of applicants’ exams, according to him, “under close supervision.”
He claims that these applicants are individuals that enrolled for the 2023 UTME without displaying any biometric issues but were unable to be confirmed on the test day.
Abuja Center difficulty
Candidates who were supposed to take the 2023 UTME at the Beautiful Beginning CBT Centre, Apo, Abuja, but failed the test fall into the second category, according to JAMB. He explained that the exam has been postponed to Saturday, May 6.
The error in the center’s location, which caused some applicants to miss their examination, prompted the rescheduling of all the candidates who had missed it, he added.
It should be highlighted that the center’s name, Beautiful Beginning CBT Centre, Apo, Abuja, misspelled “Apo” in favor of “Gwagwalada,” deceiving the applicants.
In order to guarantee that no applicant misses the examination, Mr. Benjamin stated: “The board would not abdicate its responsibilities and has, consequently, rescheduled all candidates posted to the center, who could not sit their examination due to the incorrect address or any other reason.”
Candidates who had their exam rescheduled for April 27th but didn’t get the notification to fall into the third group.
Some of these candidates were unable to receive the notification because their school still had access to their SIM cards, email addresses, and profile codes, according to Mr. Benjamin.
He thus cautioned schools that the UTME is not a test that is specific to their institution.
Additional impacted candidates
Other candidates impacted by the development, according to the board, are those with inconsistent data and those whose centers couldn’t handle their full capacity of 250 candidates and, as a result, had to be “batched,” with some of these centers taking 150 candidates instead of the 250 assigned to them per session.
“For obvious reasons, certain CBT centers had data on some applicants that didn’t match what they registered. This was also made feasible by the negligence of these candidates, who were unable to use the dual screens provided by the Board to track the progress of their registration.
He stated that efforts are being made to correct their data, and they will also have an exam date set for Saturday, May 6.
“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 continued.