JAMB: 1.6 million candidates sit for 2023 UTME as exercise commences nationwide

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) on Tuesday commenced the 2023 Unified Tertiary Matriculations Examination nationwide with minor hitches in some examination centres.

The examination which is expected to end on the 3rd of May, 2023 would be taken by more than 1.6 million candidates over 700 Computer Based Test (CBT) centres across the country.

NAN visit to some examination centres in Abuja and some states of the Federation indicated that the conduct of the exercise was largely hitch-free and orderly except for some minor hitches in some of the examination centres.

While some candidates commended the Board for the orderly conduct of the examination, some others said they had minor issues with the system they used either that their keyboard malfunctioned and had to be replaced or delay at the start of the examination.

At Global Distance Learning Institute Abuja, the first day of the examination took off smoothly. Nigerian Tribune observed that as early as 6. a.m, the majority of the candidates for the first session of the examination were already on the ground even though the examination started around 8:30. a.m.

A candidate Mercy Ebuka said she was happy with the conduct of the exercise, from the biometric verification to the orderly sitting in the examination hall, noting that it was her first time sitting for UTME. According to her, the questions were not too difficult as she always assume “when people talk of about difficulty in passing JAMB”.

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Candidates are being checked into the examination hall using the Biometric Verification Machine, BVM which is also a register of attendance in line with the Board’s policy of “no biometric verification, no examination.”

Head of Public Relations of JAMB, Dr Fabian Benjamin said that the Board has put in all measures to ensure smooth conduct of the examination.

He had in a statement earlier in the week advised candidates who registered for the exercise to print their 2023 UTME notification slips which contain information on the location of the candidate’s examination centre, the date of scheduled sessions, the time of the examination and other necessary information.

He also said the ban on prohibited items is still in force, while asking candidates to be careful not to run foul of the law as necessary sanctions would be meted out to violators of its code of conduct.

He listed the banned items within the examination hall including but not limited to flash drives, smart watches, calculators, recorders, mobile phones, spy reading glasses, pieces of jewellery, among others.

One of the monitors that belong to the group of high opinion leader, Abdulrahman Balogun, who spoke with newsmen at the Centre, said so far he had been to several centres like Jikwoyi, Karu, AYA and Distance Learning Institute and it was a success story.

“This centre (Distance Learning Institute), is supposed to have three sessions at 7, 9 and 11 am respectively. However, they have some delay, it was not due to technical hitches but just to get the go-ahead from the JAMB”.

NAN