Amidst the commencement of the 2024 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) on Friday, the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has issued an appeal to candidates encountering glitches during the exam to remain composed as their sessions will be rescheduled.
Professor Ishaq Oloyode, the Registrar of JAMB, made this appeal while addressing journalists after overseeing the examination process in Kogo-Bwari, Abuja.
He noted that thus far, the UTME has been proceeding smoothly with only one reported case of a center facing issues.
“We urge the public to be understanding of this situation. It’s inevitable that some centers may encounter challenges.
So far, I’ve only received reports of one center experiencing difficulties today.
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“By the end of the day, we anticipate around 10 percent of the centers may encounter some issues due to varying levels of infrastructure across the country.
“We don’t encourage such occurrences, but in the event they do happen, we appeal for cooperation.
When a session is disrupted, affected candidates cannot join subsequent sessions.
They will need to wait, and our headquarters will be contacted.
“The earliest they can be rescheduled will be after 4:30 p.m., allowing others to continue with their exams.
These candidates may be scheduled for session four or even the following day,” he explained.
Professor Oloyode also expressed JAMB’s discomfort with awarding scholarships solely based on UTME scores, emphasizing that other admission criteria such as O Level quality and post-UTME scores should also be considered.
“Yes, companies like MTN offer scholarships to top scorers, but we discourage this practice because UTME scores alone don’t reflect a candidate’s overall suitability. Other factors like O Level grades and post-UTME performance should be taken into account. Prematurely ranking candidates based solely on UTME scores is not a fair assessment,” he asserted.
The 2024 UTME is being conducted nationwide today and will continue tomorrow.
