UTME deadline may not be extended, says JAMB chairman

Chairman  of the Governing Board, Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Emmanuel Ndukwe, has said he does not foresee an extension of the registration for the 2019 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) beyond the February 21 deadline.

Speaking while monitoring the ongoing registration of candidates in some Computer Based Test (CBT) Centres in Lagos, on Friday, Ndukwe urged candidates planning to take the 2019 UTME to do so now while there is no pressure at the centres.

“I don’t foresee an extension. We have to stick to the date we have given to the public. If we start thinking about extension, it doesn’t portray our seriousness. In some of the places we visited, they had many systems but few candidates. Let the candidates out there be mindful of the examination dates. I don’t foresee any extension of dates,” he said.

Ndukwe expressed satisfaction with what he saw at the  Ha-Shem Academy centre, Iwaya, FCE Technical Akoka centre, and the Electronic Test Centre (eTC), Anthony, where he interacted with the centre managers and candidates.

“It is seamless and we are happy. What I have seen today has confirm that Prof.  Oloyede and his technical team were very right to ban cyber cafes. I have interacted with the candidates; they are all happy and satisfied. I must express the satisfaction of the board. How it was last year is not how it is this year, and it will be better next year,” he said.

In all the centres, none was found charging more than the official fee of the examination, N3,500 in addition to N500 for the literature text, Sweet Sixteen, to be used for the examination, and N700 charged by the CBT centres for registration.

Ndukwe said any centre involved in sharp practices would be sanctioned, stressing that JAMB was right to have banned Ccber cafes because of the irregularities they engaged in.

“We praise President Muhammadu Buhari for reducing the cost of registration from N5,000  to N3,500 to cater for ordinary people in Nigeria. People should not find any avenue to surcharge the candidates,” he said.

On their part, the CBT centre managers said the registration process was better this year than previous years. At the time of the visit, the three centres had registered over 14,000 candidates.