JAMB sticks to UTME, insists on April 27 date

EVEN against the backdrop of the reported recommendations that it be stripped of the powers to conduct entrance examinations into the universities, the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) yesterday restated its commitment to conducting a hitch-free 2013 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).
The assurance, which came from the JAMB Registrar/Chief Executive Officer, Prof. Adedibu Ojerinde, said that irrespective of the publications, the board remained committed to conducting the examinations on April 27, 2013 as outlined by the original timetable.
Ojerinde, in Abuja, insisted that while JAMB, “as a responsible and responsive organisation, was not averse to innovation, changes and government policies skewed to improve the lot of the sector, it has not changed the date of 2013 UTME.”
He added through the JAMB Spokesman, Fabian Benjamin: “Consequently, candidates are informed that the board’s 2013 UTME slated for April 27 will take place as scheduled. And the dates for the Computer-Based Test (CBT) will also be communicated to candidates soon.
“Arrangements have been completed as relevant stakeholders have been sensitised and briefed about the examination while the board has deployed all necessary logistics and materials to all designated centres preparatory to the examinations.”
The JAMB boss noted that the clarification became necessary in view of newspaper publications to the effect that the Federal Government might have cancelled UTME examination. This followed the recommendations of the Steven Oronsaye Presidential Committee on Rationalisation and Restructuring of Federal Government Parastatals and Commissions.
The committee’s recommendations to scrap the National Examinations Council (NECO), the National Poverty Eradication Programme (NAPEP) and streamline the activities of JAMB were meant to decentralise the conduct of examinations into the universities and other tertiary institutions through the planned re-organisation of JAMB, which is responsible for conducting UTME in the country.
By implication, JAMB would no longer conduct UTME, as tertiary institutions would be given free hand to conduct tests and/or admit students. With this development, JAMB would be reduced to a supervisory body that serves as both clearing-house and administrative body monitoring admissions in order to check multiple offers and entries.