The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has announced January 3, 2019 as the commencement date for the sale of forms for the 2019 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).
JAMB said that the registration window would be open for six weeks for prospective candidates.
The Board also said that it will discontinue the use of cyber cafes for registration of candidates beginning from the next examinations in 2019.
This was announced today, Tuesday by JAMB’s Registrar, Professor Ishaq Oloyede, during his meeting with proprietors of Computer Based Test (CBT) centres at the University of Lagos.
“We are no longer going to allow the cyber cafes to do the registration exercise for prospective candidates because they are extorting candidates and overcharging them.
“They also do services they do not have the capacity to do, coupled with the fact that there was no way of tracking them because they were not registered.
“Another major reason is the mix-up they create on the data of the candidates. Some will just ask the candidates to write their names and other details down for them.
“On accumulating such data, they now get all of them mixed-up, thereby creating problems for these candidates.
“We know there will be uproar because they make a lot of illegitimate money from these services, but we cannot leave the candidates at their mercy.
“Particularly when people will make noise that it is JAMB that was extorting them.”
Professor Oloyede said that JAMB has so far accredited 718 centres where prospective candidates can walk in to do their registrations.
He said that the 2019 general elections would not hinder the sale of UTME forms as the board had adjusted its examination schedule ahead of the election.
“We thank INEC for giving us an early notice and so, it is expected that the exercise will be hitch-free.”
The JAMB Registrar also revealed that officials of the agency would be visiting the United Kingdom next week to see what ways the body can use technology to have smooth conduct of examinations at its centres for visually impaired candidates.
“Next week, some of our officials will be in the United Kingdom where all the assessment bodies, who are attending to the blind, will meet.
“They will meet with a view to finding the best technology to use for these special candidates at a better price, because of the exchange rate.
“However, those with Braille machines, they are available; we will give them and those who do not have, we want to encourage them, whatever best method available to us, we will deploy because we want to be as inclusive as possible.
“That is also why we have set up a committee of experts under Prof. Peter Okebukola, to look for all-inclusive methods to be able to attend and bend it to suit the purposes of all these peculiar candidates.”
He warned CBT proprietors the Board will not tolerate JAMB-related materials at their various centres, saying “JAMB will continue to partner with you, empower good CBT centres to do things properly, as all essential services will henceforth be done by our good CBT centres.
“But to whom much is given, much is expected and so as we restrict services to you, you will be rewarded accordingly.
“But that does not stop there, as we will also beam our searchlight by tracking you also, to ensure that you remain in the right track.
“Do not pack up your centres and convert it to another thing, after the UTME, because we can come at any time for inspection.”