The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) on Friday says it may shift the 2021 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examinations (UTME) and Direct Entry (DE) programme which is scheduled to hold 5 – 19th June, due to the National Identity Number (NIN).
Is-haq Oloyede, JAMB registrar said this at a virtual briefing session for the committees on 2021 UTME, said the board may shift the exams due to the fact that a significant number of its prospective candidates are yet to get their NIN.
He said, “We will be holding critical meetings to determine whether or not we should shift the examinations. This is primarily because of the introduction of NIN. A number of candidates have been complaining that their NIN have not been released by the agency responsible for that.
“From what we have seen, over 600,000 who had indicated interest have not been able to register. Today, we want to analyse why they have not been able to register after they have indicated interest.
The registrar said a little over 1 million have so far registered, but the board is expecting 1.9 million candidates.
The 2021 UTME and Direct Entry (DE) registration is ongoing and deadline is tomorrow, May 15.
The registrar said he is disappointed with the NIMC, adding that there are still problems with the NIN process.
He said JAMB will hold meetings with NIMC and other critical stakeholders over the next two days to decide whether or not to postpone the examinations or extend registration deadline.
Meanwhile, Oloyede said the mock examinations which is slated to hold Thursday May, 2021 will hold as scheduled.
He said the essence of the mock examination is to enable the board test its system and also enable candidates test their ability.
The Registrar also disclosed that some changes have been made in the 2021 examination exercise. He said the candidate examinations slip now has two pictures, which are the photo of the candidate who registered for the examination and the owner of the NIN.
Oloyede said both pictures are expected to be the same . He added that the reason for adding two pictures is to expose if there are any disparity
The registrar said the board have seen some of the cases and urged its staff to pay attention to any likely disparity.
