JAMB begins sale of UTME forms March 20

Friday Olokor and Folashade Adebayo

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board has said the sale of the 2017/2018 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination forms will commence on March 20 and end on April 19.

The body added that an optional mock examination had been slated for April 10.

The JAMB Registrar/Chief Executive Officer, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, who also stated that the UTME would commence on May 6, made the announcements on Monday during an interactive session with Computer-Based-Test centre operators in Lagos.

Oloyede said the board opted for a one-month registration window as against the usual three-month period in the past, “to eliminate all the ills associated with long registration process.’’

He added that 600 CBT centres had been accredited across the country.

Oloyede said, “UTME 2017 examination starts May 6 till May 20, 2017 (excluding May 12, 2017 because of candidates sitting WAEC’s Further Mathematics examination). Sale of forms ends on Wednesday, April 19, 2017 while the registration portal closes on Saturday, April 22, 2017.

“For direct entry candidates, the application will be on sale from Sunday, April 23, 2017. Once a candidate creates a profile on his mobile phone, an e-syllabus and brochure is sent to his or her mail. This is even before paying the N5,000 cost of the UTME form. For candidates who choose to sit the April 8 mock examination, they are not required to pay to JAMB.

“We are not charging a fee for that. But, they will be required to pay N700 at the CBT examination centre on that day. It is at that point that a candidate will pay. We have also said that there should not be cash transactions except in the banks.’’

Oloyede also said that JAMB would conduct a residential training for blind candidates to train them on how to use Braille machines during examinations. He added that the training, which would hold this year, was meant for final year blind applicants.

He called on state governments to equip UTME centres with Braille machines.

JAMB had in February announced that it had completed a joint timetable with WAEC and the National Examination Council to avoid clashing examination dates.

The restructuring exercise, it had said, would allow for only one choice of public university in which new registration platform would be first choice, second choice, third choice and fourth choice and not most preferred or preferred choice.

The spokesperson for JAMB, Dr. Fabian Benjamin, had said the agency had taken time to add value to its services to Nigerians.

He said, “We have designed a Central Admissions Processing System where JAMB will interface with the institutions and ensure the compliance of this reform. The summary is that no candidate will be admitted with awaiting result. Candidates and their parents are also to note that JAMB has restructured the registration platform to allow for only one choice of public university. The new registration platform will now be first choice, second choice, third choice and fourth choice and not most preferred, preferred etc as it was.

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