Preparation for the upcoming 2020 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) commenced Tuesday as 350,000 candidates across Nigeria took part in the Computer Based Test (CBT) mock examination.
The mock examination, which is optional, presents an opportunity for secondary school leavers seeking to gain admissions into universities, polytechnics or colleges of education to test their preparedness for the main examination.
Ishaq Oloyede, registrar, Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), says about 64 computer-based centres across the country will be used for the mock examination.
One of the purposes of the mock examination is to test-run the facilities in these centres. Any one of them that falls short of the standard will automatically be delisted, Jamb spokesperson, Fabian Benjamin said.
Oloyede said that over 1.9 million candidates registered for the UTME examination, scheduled to take place from March 14 to April 4, 2020, while ‘200,000 registered for direct entry.
Fabian Benjamin, Head of Media and Information, in a recent interview, reports that the 2020 UTME and DE registrations exercises started on January 13 and ended on February 17 across the country.
Benjamin opines that the examination board has no plan to extend the date for the registration of candidates for both the UTME and the direct entry (DE) as being speculated in some quarters.
He disclosed that the over 1.9 million candidates registered for the examination, without doubt, is the highest that the board has ever recorded in the history of its examination.
According to him, a total of 669 out of the 747 centres across the country will be used for the conduct of the computer-based test (CBT).
He called for the support and cooperation of stakeholders so as to collectively deliver on the public responsibility.
BusinessDay investigations reveal that the carrying capacity in tertiary education institutions in Nigeria has not significantly improved in relation to the exponential growth in the number of candidates seeking tertiary education in the country.
Tertiary education institutions in Nigeria include, but not limited to, the universities, colleges of education and polytechnics. In the 2019 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examinations (UTME), over 1.9 million candidates sat for the examinations, while the spaces available were not more than 500,000.
