25th February, 2016
The 2016 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) will begin Saturday, 27 Feb and will “not be more than 14 days,” the Registrar/Chief Executive Officer of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Emeritus Professor ‘Dibu Ojerinde, has stated.
The Registrar, in a press statement made available to newsmen Thursday, commended the President Muhammadu Buhari-led Federal Government for his support, noting that this is the first UTME that will be done under the new administration.
He also commended education stakeholders and the press, among others, for the support the Board has received in the course of preparations for the examination.
The UTME, Ojerinde said, will hold simultaneously in 521 examination centres in Nigeria and eight foreign centres including Accra in Ghana, Buea in Republic of Cameroun, Cotonou in Republic of Benin, London in United Kingdom, Jeddah in Kingdom of Saudi-Arabia, Johannesburg in Republic of South Africa, Addis in Ethiopia and Abidjan in Cote d’Ivoire.
He disclosed that the Board has fine-tuned the candidates’ redistribution policy, which generated controversy last year, in order to reduce the high rate of successful candidates not being able to secure admission into tertiary institutions due to limited spaces.
He said the Board has now introduced “another choice after the preferred choices amongst schools that are under-subscribed, to enable candidates to take up a second opportunity if they fail to get their first preferred choice.”
Professor Ojerinde also explained that cut-off points were not set by JAMB but “by the policy committee chaired by the Honourable Minister of Education with the Board, Vice-Chancellors, Provost of Education, Rectors of Polytechnics, Monotechnics and so on,” saying that the 180 cut-off point is a only minimum requirement and not an indication that any candidate who scores 180 would be admitted.
He praised the success of the Computer Based Test (CBT), noting that it has erased several hurdles such as logistics and examination malpractices and ensured that the system is seamless, called on Nigerians to continue to support the Board in its effort to return the glory of Nigerian education.
The JAMB Registrar maintained that a total of 1,589,175 candidates applied for the 2016 UTME as against the 1,475,477 candidates, which registered for the 2015 UTME, noting that 343 prison inmates registered for the 2016 UTME.
He said the inmates will have access to computers at both the Kaduna and Ikoyi prisons.
Imo State recorded the highest number of candidates registered for the 2016 UTME with 102,727, while Osun and Oyo states followed with 83, 060 and 81, 065 respectively, while the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and Zamfara State recorded the lowest registrations with 5, 069 and 7,254 candidates respectively.
A total of 201 Visually Impaired candidates registered for this year’s examination and adequate arrangements have been provided to ensure that they partake in the examination.