Segun Akanni, Toronto, Canada The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board in Abuja on Friday announced the suspension of registration for the 2017 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination for 52 hours.
The decision was aimed at preventing any disruption during the conduct of the UTME mock examinations scheduled for Saturday.
The examination body, which put the suspension hour between 8:00pm on April 7 (Friday) and 12:00am on April 10 (Monday), said one million candidates have registered for the exam so far.
The Registrar/Chief Executive of JAMB, Prof. Is-haq Oloyede, who made the announcement at a press briefing in Abuja, however said candidates could also go to banks, NIPOST, Interswitch or Remita to procure PINs for registration on Monday.
According to him, there will be no sale of forms, registration and biometric capturing at the various centres in which the mock examinations would take place.
He said the mock examinations for interested candidates taking place on Saturday was intended to familiarise the candidates with the Computer-Based Test systems and generally forecast the challenges that may surface in order to proactively address them.
Oloyede reassured the candidates that there was no need for worry or anxiety; adding that in the next one week, eligible and interested applicants will be successfully registered, as, already, 1,000,000 applicants have successful registered.
While regretting all inconveniences caused as a result of the temporary closure of registration activities, the JAMB CEO assured everyone of the possibility of an extension of registration date, as, according to him, every applicant must be carried along.
He said, ”Saturday April 8 , 2017 has been set aside for the Mock UTME. To seamlessly achieve this, the Board has suspended all activities relating to the registration exercise in any CBT centre from 8pm today, being Friday April 7 2017 and to resume on Monday April 10 2017.
”There will be no sale of forms, registration and biometric capturing at the various centres in which the Mock Examinations are taking place. This however does not preclude any candidate from going to Banks, NIPOST, interswitch or Remita to procure pins for registration on Monday. This is to prevent any disruption of the process and conduct of the Mock Examination.
“The Mock Examinations are intended to familiarize our candidates with the CBT systems and generally forecast the challenges that may be faced ahead in order to proactively address them. It is just a rehearsal for us and candidates who want to experience the situation to expect during the actual examinations.
“Therefore, the sale of forms, registration and biometrics at CBT centres are to be suspended from 8:00 p.m. today till Monday, April 10, 2017. This notice is for the strict adherence of our officers and partners throughout the federation.
”While wishing the candidates and officials participating in the examination a successful mock exercise, we once again re-assure the candidates that there is no need for worry or anxiety. In the next one week, we believe it will be sufficient to capture the remaining candidates as about 1,000,000 applicants have successful registered.
“No one will be left behind as the deadline may be extended if there are applicants who do not succeed at registering due to circumstances beyond their control.”
