We may postpone 2021 UTME, says JAMB

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) says it may shift the date for its 2021 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).

Ishaq Oloyede, the JAMB registrar, spoke at a virtual meeting with the 2021 UTME committee members on Friday.

He said the board is considering if there is a need to extend the registration period and consequently change the date for this year’s exam.

According to him, the development comes on the back of the inability of at least 600,000 candidates to register for the examination scheduled to hold between June 5 and 19.

Oloyede revealed that 1.1 million candidates have so far registered for the 2021 UTME. He also noted that the examination body has anticipated approximately 1.9 million registrations at the end of the exercise.

Oloyede added that the board will decide on whether or not to postpone the exam at the end of the stakeholder meeting.

“The possibility of shifting the exam forward is still high, but that will be determined after our meeting with stakeholders,” the professor was quoted as saying.

“This is because about 600,000 candidates who have indicated an interest in the exam are yet to register. There is a need to give everyone the opportunity.”

The exam body had mandated that all candidates must provide their National Identification Number (NIN) as a criterion for the registration of this year’s UTME.

To register, applicants are expected to text their NIN to 55019 in order to get profile codes that are needed to purchase UTME e-Pin.

The generation of profile codes has, however, proven difficult for many of the applicants, delaying their registration for the exams.

TheCable Lifestyle had last Monday reported how applicants flooded the Lagos office of the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) to rectify errors as a result of NIN registration.