JAMB Postpones UTME in Borno State

The Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) yesterday postponed Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) in Borno State following Friday killings by Boko Haram in Borno State.

There were reports on Friday that Boko Haram insurgents attacked four communities in the State leaving scores of people dead including some JAMB candidates.

But, the Registrar and Chief Executive Officer of JAMB, Professor Dibu Ojerinde, while monitoring the conduct of the examination in Centres within the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja however debunked the reports, saying the victims were not UTME candidates.

Prof. Ojerinde said the 400 candidates would be made to sit for the examination at a date to be announced later by JAMB, adding that they would be examined through the Computer Based Test (CBT).

Reacting to the reports of the killing of some UTME candidates by Boko Haram insurgents in Borno, Prof. Ojerinde said, “They were not JAMB candidates. Of course, they were attacked and Jamb candidates who supposed to go to Maiduguri have decided to stay at home.

“We will cater for them using the Computer Based Test. We are aware of that. In fact, they are just afraid of what would happen, that is why they did not go there. So they are not precisely JAMB candidates.

In the meantime, JAMB has insisted that the Paper Pencil Test (PPT) Examination mode would be scrapped from 2015, with all future enrolment to be on Computer Based Test.

The Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Education, MacJohn Nwaobiala, confirmed the information while also monitoring the UTME at Base University, Abuja.

According to Nwaobiala, “The Computer Based Test is more efficient. It is something that is global in nature. I know that a lot of work has been done to ensure that by the time we transit completely next year to CBT, more candidates will easily flow and join the process.

A total of one million, six hundred and six thousand, seven hundred and fifty-three (1, 606, 753)candidates applied for the UTME examination  scheduled to be held in three hundred and ninety-two (392) examination towns in Nigeria and seven (7) foreign centres  this year.

The 2014 examination was conducted in the three modes namely, Computer Based Test (CBT), Dual Based Test (DBT) and Paper Pencil Test (PPT).