Ishaq Oloyede, Registrar, Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), has disclosed that the exams body plans to conduct mock exams for the intending candidates ‎seeking admissions to tertiary institutions in the country for 2017/2018 academic session through the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).

The Registrar spoke on the sidelines of JAMB’s Information and Communication Retreat held on Tuesday in Abeokuta, involving civil society groups, students and other stakeholders. He noted that the examination body targeted 1.7 million candidates for 2017 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME). He added that JAMB also aimed at increasing the capacities of its Computer-Based Test Centres in order to make the April examination seamless.

Oloyede said, “We are working with the possibility of a mock examination. A mock examination for people who just want to try their hands on what we are doing. We are expecting 1.7 million candidates to sit for JAMB this year and we want to make sure we satisfy these candidates within a week or thereabout.

“That is why we are increasing the capacity of the Computer-Based Test centres to be able to examine more candidates within a given date.”

While explaining that the body would not promise a hitch-free examination due to ongoing changes and innovations which would send illegal operators who have been defrauding candidates out of business, he reiterated that the examination body would not be deterred in its mission to serve its candidates better despite the perceived challenges that usually trail UTME exams conduct ‎over times.

He said, “I must be frank with you, I cannot promise a hitch- free examination because we are testing certain things. We are changing certain things. We want to question the status quo and of course, we expect a fight back by interest that will be trampled upon.

“We are going to be as sincere as possible in the direction we are going. We are going to be as flexible as humanly possible. We are not promising hitch free examination. We envisaged that there will be hitches here and there, but they will not be insurmountable.

Rather than promising the nation hitch free examination, we will be promising a direction we will all be pleased with.

“Initially, there might be hiccups and of course one would not have been appointed if it is routine. I believe that I have been given a very difficult job and that is why I am not promising that all will be smooth.

“We are creating some ICT facilities and we want our stakeholders, prospective candidates, respected scholars, institutions, civil societies to come together and critique what we are doing, so that we can be sure, before we go too far in a wrong direction.

“This is a view of harvesting good ideas that could improve what we are doing. Of course, I believed that Nigeria is ripe for this (CBT). Nigeria is more advanced than some of these countries. At least, we have three or four countries that are observing our examination and they want to go the way of the conduct of the examination.”

When the Registrar was asked to talk on the delay which inhibits the immediate sales of 2017 UTME application forms, he told Nigerians that JAMB would soon commence the sale of its forms for the 2017 UTME, and Nigerians should patronise JAMB accredited registration centres when the sales start to avoid being duped. (Business Day, Nigeria)

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