JAMB bans use of wristwatches, pens in UTME centres

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has banned the use of wristwatches and pens during its 2018 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).

Is’haq Oloyede, the board’s registrar, made this known on the sideline of a sensitisation workshop for Computer Based Test (CBT) centre owners on Wednesday in Lagos.

“What we are doing here today is to appraise the registration and conduct of our past examination and we have taken some lessons from our experience,” he said.

“To this end therefore we have introduced some measures that will further add to the integrity of the registration process as well as the conduct of the examination proper.

“For instance, we discovered during the conduct of the last examination that some electronic devices such as pens, wristwatches and other devices were used to perpetrate examination malpractice.

“So, for next year, we have banned the use of wristwatches and pens by candidates and other persons in the examination hall.

“We are also going to introduce some detection devices to ensure that those who plan to cheat in the examination hall are frustrated, as we will also jam (communication network) of the centres.”

2018 UTME FORMS ON SALE IN NOV

Oloyede said the sale of the registration document for the 2018 UTME would commence before the end of November.

He said: “We are planning to meet with all stakeholders on Nov. 15 and the sale of the registration document will definitely commence before the end of this month.

“But before that, we expect candidates to go and download our app, go to our website and download the syllabus and brochure, so that they can now study the process.

“This is in order to minimise the errors that usually occurs during the registration process.”

The JAMB boss added that not less than 617 centres have been accredited nationwide for the exercise.

“We are still considering about 60 more centres as we have their applications waiting for consideration.

“However, a total of 72 centres nationwide have earlier been delisted owing to their involvement in some infractions and they remain delisted.”