We are more than ready for UTME, says JAMB registrar

Is-haq Oloyede, registrar of the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) says the board is “more than ready” for the 2017 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).

Speaking with reporters on the sideline of the mock examinations organised by JAMB on Saturday, Oloyode said so far over 1.5 million candidates have registered for this year’s examination.

“We have registered over 1.5 million candidates in less than five weeks; we believe that the reality we have put in place is good enough,” he said.

“I think from what we are seeing, we are more than ready for the main examination. At least 90 percent of the examination centres have reported positively, there has been proper downloading and preparation; even after the exam, we had uploaded responses of 80 per cent.

“We have done it to show that what works elsewhere across the world should work in Nigeria; we believe we can do it efficiently; we will continue to do our best.”

He revealed that 633 centres were used to conduct the mock examination for 153,000 candidates across the country.

In separate interviews, some of examination centre coordinators and candidates lauded JAMB for the mock initiative “geared towards equipping the candidates to do better in the main exam.”

Abdul-Aziz Olasoyinka, technical research officer of Digital Bridge Institute, commended JAMB for the mock examination.

“Mock is a good experience because it will help the candidates to adequately prepare for the forthcoming examination. It helps to evaluate how well the candidates have prepared and to improve themselves ahead of time,” he said.

Olajide Adisa, director of outstations at JAMB, said although there were 230 capacities at the computer based test (CBT) centre, plans were on to upgrade them to 250 them before the main exam.

“Even with that our specification is that at least we should have 10 percent of same capacity as back-up in case of any breakdown. We have already put measures in place to test them in the course of the mock examination, they will be ready for the main examination,” Adisa said.