Minister expresses satisfaction as 80,000 candidates write rescheduled UTME

The Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu, has expressed satisfaction over the conduct of the rescheduled 2023 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) that witnessed about 80,000 candidates sitting for the exams.

Adamu, who on Saturday alongside the Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, monitored the exam at the Computer Based Test (CBT) centre located in Mambila Barracks, Asokoro, Abuja, expressed delight over the smooth conduct of the exercise.

While saying no negative incident was recorded in the conduct of the UTME at the CBT centre, the minister, however, made a case for a temporary holding place for candidates waiting for the scheduled time of the exam.

“Everything is okay. Have you seen any problem? Perhaps they should have a class for the holding room. I think that is the only improvement they will make here,” Adamu said.

Meanwhile, JAMB’s Head of Public Affairs and Protocol, Dr Fabian Benjamin, in an interview on Saturday, said about 80,000 candidates, who could not sit for the 2023 UTME within their scheduled time owing to no fault of theirs, sat for the rescheduled UTME across the country.

According to the JAMB’s spokesperson, candidates affected included those who were verified at their centres but could not sit for the examination, those who could not be biometrically verified, and  those with mismatched data, among others.

He said the deployment of innovations in the conduct of the exam paid off bountifully as the exercise recorded the lowest reported cases of infractions.

“In this year’s UTME, issue of examination malpractices was reduced to almost zero level,” Fabian said.

On when the results of the rescheduled UTME would be released by the examination body, Fabian said the board’s management will analyse the conduct of the exercise after its conclusion before it will take a decision on that.

The Board had on Tuesday released results of candidates who had earlier taken part in the exam that commenced on Tuesday, 25th April.

A total of 1,586,765 candidates indicated interest in sitting for the 2023 UTME.

Credit: Thisday