From Fred Ezeh, Abuja
Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), said on Thursday, that no fewer than 30 Computer Based Test (CBT) Centres experienced technical or related issues during the 2021 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).
It said that, as a result, about 18,000 candidates could not participate in the 2021 UTME due to the technical issues in the CBT centres and several other issues bordering on clash of timetable with other examination bodies.
JAMB spokesman, Dr. Fabian Benjamin, in a statement, said that mop-up examination has been arranged for the affected candidates in some selected locations across the nation on Friday, 6th August, 2021.
He said that affected candidates have been notified about the new examination date through the platform of text messages on their designated phone numbers and their JAMB profiles.
He stated that no candidate whose result has been duly released will be rescheduled for another examination, contrary to the sponsored fake news being circulated on the social and few mischievous conventional media.
He explained that the rescheduled candidates are those who could not be initially scheduled for examination due to inability to timely procure and supply their mandatory National Identification Number (NIN) or profile codes until after the close of the registration exercise and, therefore, had to purchase bank drafts as against the usual vending of PINs, after the scheduled period for the examination and were later registered.
Others are candidates who encountered peculiar biometric verification problem, or who failed biometric verification on the examination date and were recaptured, but were not allowed to partake in the examination.
Similarly, he said that candidates who were unable to sit for the UTME due to the clash of timetables of the UTME and NABTEB examinations, and whose particulars have been verified and supplied directly to JAMB by NABTEB, as well as candidates who have been ascertained by JAMB to have experienced genuine technical problems as was the case in 30 of the 760 centres used for the examination.
He said that adequate screening arrangements have been made to reverify such claims and any candidate found to be involved in any form of impersonation would be identified for prosecution.
He advised the rescheduled candidates to print fresh examination notification slips containing the venue and time of the examination.
He advised candidates to avoid supplying vital information including registration number to fraudsters who are abound especially in cybercafes, tutorial centres springing up almost everywhere in the nation as a result of the illicit activities of examination syndicates.
He stated that CBT centres approved by JAMB which are consistently monitored are relatively more secured for printing examination notification slips by candidates who cannot print such on their own.