1.5m candidates to sit for JAMB exams

Atotal of 1,475,477 candidates including 208 inmates and 192 visually impaired persons are expected to sit for this year’s Joint Admission Matriculation Board ( JAMB) examination, Registrar of the board, Professor Dibu Ojerinde has said.

Briefing newsmen yesterday in Abuja, Professor Ojerinde said the figure for the 2015 UTME shows a decrease of 156,695 applicants when compared with last year’s figure of 1,632,172 candidates.

He said the board in its quest to enhance the image of public

examinations, has introduced the regulated registration platform where only accredited centres were allowed to register candidates for the 2015 UTME.

“This has helped in eliminating incidences of multiple registrations, exploitation of candidates and input of wrong details of candidates during registration,” he said.

Professor Ojerinde explained that the 2015 UTME will hold

simultaneously in the 400 centres in Nigeria and seven foreign centres in Accra (Ghana), Buea (Cameroun), Cotonou (Benin), London (UK), Jeddah (S/Arabia) and Johannesburg in South Africa.

He said while a trail CBT exam will hold on Monday March 9, the actual exam will be conducted nationwide on Tuesday March 10.

The Registrar said candidates are required to come to the exam centres with their e-registration slips only, warning that nobody will be allowed entry into the hall with any writing material such calculators, pencil, erasers and sharpeners as they would be provided for them by the board.

He also warned candidates against the use of phone handset or any communication gadgets in and around the examination venues, saying “anyone found with such gadgets would be deemed to have been engaged in examination malpractice as outlined in the examination malpractice decree No 33 of 1999.”

He said the board has engaged the services of security agents in order to reduce malpractice, appealing to the candidates to conduct themselves during the exam.