Observers Score JAMB High As UTME Begins Nationwide

LAGOS - Observers, who monitored the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) in various parts of the country have commended the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), for conducting examination devoid of irregularities despite some few technical issues.

JAMB on Saturday, June 19, commenced the conduct of the 2021 UTME which is expected to run till July 3.

LEADERSHIP reports that a total of about 1.3 million candidates registered to sit for the examination with the hope of securing admission into various tertiary institutions in the country, sadly not all were unable to make it due to the compulsory requirement of National Identification Number (NIN).

Our correspondent observed in some of the examination centres monitored in Abuja that there were delays in some centres due to some technical glitches while majority of the centres conducted the exam without any hitch.

At the Global Distance Learning Institute, Central Business District, Abuja, which is one of the accredited CBT centres, the first session of the examination started at about 8.15am with 195 students in attendance and five absentees.

A JAMB high powered opinion leader, Abduraman Balogun, supervising the centre, said the exam was free of hitches. He commended the Board for ensuring that the exam was successful in most of the centres.

“Students are finishing the examination ahead of the time and the arrangement and the facilities are so perfect. It is a commendable effort from JAMB. We really have to commend the Board for that wonderful work in terms of anticipatory challenges and how they were able to fix it,” Balogun added.

While stating that there was no malpractices, he noted that, that was made possible by the mock UTME, which helped the candidates to prepare well.

One of the candidates, Aisha Moukhtar, who sat the first session of the examination at Global Distance Learning Centre said there were no technical issues apart one person that complained he couldn’t submit on time.

Our correspondent also observed at Junior Secondary School Jikwoyi where 244 candidates were present with six absentees, that some kind of technical hitches were experienced as some of the system sparked off thus delaying the kick-off of the examination at the appointed time.

However, it was gathered that JAMB quickly brought in some of their technical staff to fix the problem.