Candidates reject date for upcoming JAMB exam

The candidates who protested on Friday, February 23, 2018 in Lagos questioned why JAMB wants to conduct another exam when admission processes are yet to close in some higher institutions.

Some of the protesting candidates carried placards with such inscriptions as “Admissions are yet to close, why conducting another UTME now?”;“JAMB isn’t for revenue generation, stop milking our parents,” “2017 UTME held in May, why March in 2018?”, “2018 admissions not transparent”.

Having sat for the 2017 UTME some of the candidates who had hoped they would gain admission in 2018 said they just found out this week that they are not going to be admitted, adding that they can not prepare for the next UTME in less than one month.

While addressing pressmen during the protest, Dotun Sodunke, the National President of the Association of Tutorial School Operators (ATSO) said if the 2018 UTME is allowed to hold in March, Nigeria would experience another mass failure in the exam.

Sodunke said the JAMB Registrar, Prof Ishaq Oloyede should be called to order lest he is carried away by the euphoria of revenue generation.

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“The new head of JAMB needs to be called to order. He should not be carried away by the euphoria of revenue generation. The future of this country depends on these children.

“JAMB is sure that if you conduct the exam early, many candidates would fail, and they would come back to register again next year. This is so because their children don’t school here.

“Admissions are yet to be concluded, yet you are fixing a date for another one. Who does that? The introduction of the Central Admission Processing System (CAPS) is also a fraud. You would be admitted on JAMB portal and on CAPS page it would deny you admission.

“Everything is done in secrecy as we don’t even know which schools are organizing post-UTME and which ones are not. Every institution is doing what it wants. Things must not go on like this.”

Meanwhile, JAMB's spokesperson, Dr Fabian Benjamin has reacted to the protest saying tutorial operators are the ones using the candidates for protest. He added that there is no basis for the postponement of the exam.

JAMB reacts to the protest

“We need to place the interest of this country above selfish interest. The candidates are not the ones staging the protest but the tutorial centres operators and parents must intervene to rein them in”, New Telegraph quoted him as saying.

“They are doing this because they want to keep the candidates at their centres till May so that they can get more money from them. Things are not done that way.

“JAMB is not alone in this business. All stakeholders in Nigeria’s education sector have realised that our calendar must be organised and firm as we experience abroad, and it must start somewhere.

“Even if heaven will fall, the new government wants to ensure that academic calendar starts every August, and that is why all admissions will be concluded by August this year. So if these candidates are affected, we apologise to them, it is for their good and the good of the nation.”

The 2018 UTME is scheduled to hold between March 9 and 17, while the mock exam designed to prepare the candidates for the exam holds on Monday, February 26, 2018.