JAMB extends 2024 Direct Entry registration indefinitely
The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), on Thursday, announced the extension of the Direct Entry registration till further notice.
Dr Fabian Benjamin, Public Communication Advisor of the board, while disclosing this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), said the decision was to ensure that no Nigerian child is denied access to quality higher education.
JAMB had announced the commencement of the registration of the 2024 Direct Entry from Feb. 28 to March 28.
The board also extended the exercise by two weeks, bringing the closing date for the registration to April 11 due to some factors.
“Again, reports reaching us is that there is a surge by candidates, especially in Lagos, to beat this registration deadline.
“The board want to call on all candidates yet to register for the DE to calm down, as the registration deadline is, again, extended.
“This is because of the ongoing UTME in centres across the country.
“Again, it is also our mandate to ensure that no Nigerian desirous of access to quality education is left behind.
“The board will soon announce a new date for the end of this year’s DE registration and, so candidates should relax but ensure they register as soon as possible,” Benjamin said.
However, Benjamin has described this year’s UTME, which commenced on Friday, April 19, as the best in the history of public examinations in the country, saying the exercise, which ended on Thursday, April 25, had indeed met the board’s expectations.
“This year’s examination is adjudged to be the best in the annals of public examination in Africa by all standards, and I must say it has met the expectations of the board.
“As we finish the 2024 exercise, the board is looking at cases of candidates who could not be verified, and a position would be taken on its merit.
“For all those who miss the examination on account of coming late and other related issues not connected to the board’s fault will have to try next time.
“Examination is only scheduled for candidates who were biometrically verified but unable to sit the examination,” he stated.
“Meanwhile, I will not fail to commend our partners, such as the NIMC, security agencies and others, for the huge role they played during the exercise.
“Today, the board has drawn the curtain on this year’s UTME, and we really want to appreciate these our partners for the great role they played in ensuring this very successful outcome,” he said.
The board’s public communication advisor specifically singled out the NIMC as being the game changer, adding that the NIMC platform used for registering candidates demonstrated that it could curb infractions if the will were there.
“The registration exercise starts with candidates sending their NIN number to the board’s USSD codes to pull their details.
“This has added significant value to the system, as malpractice starts from the point of registration. As soon as this stage is compromised, the whole registration would have been gone,” he stated.
1.94 million students sat for 2024 UTME, says Oloyede
The Informant247 reports that no fewer than 1.94 million candidates sat for the 2024 examinations in the country, Prof Ishaq Oloyede, the Registrar of the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB), has said.
Oloyede, while stating this on Wednesday in Kaduna, during an inspection of the Computer Based Test (CBT) centres in the state amidst the ongoing 2024 UTME examinations, said that at the end of the examination today, less than 100,000 candidates would remain in Lagos, Benue and other states in the country.
The Registrar also noted that the pace at which JAMB cleared candidates and captured biometrics made the exercise faster, adding that the process was part of JAMB’s re-engineering process towards ensuring hitch-free exercise.
“Even today, I have seen something which we need to improve on, but most importantly, we have done so many things in the background to make the exercise faster, more efficient and better. We have increased the level of automation,” he said.
The Registrar frowned at examination cheaters, saying, “It does not pay”.
He said that most of the problems JAMB faced were impersonation.
He said most of the cases were candidates with double National Identification Number, NIN, adding that JAMB would take up the issue with the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC).
“The important thing is that we are ahead of the impersonators; we have arrested a father writing examinations for his son; the kind of parenting in this generation is uncalled for; I wonder what the father will tell the son if they are locked up in the same cell.
“We now have the facilities to check all sorts of impersonation and other malpractices,” he said.
The Registrar, however, thanked parents for their support, recalling that they were seen loitering around examination centres disturbing in previous years.
“There is no report this year of parents intruding, except one state. In that state, they felt that since the first session had failed, their children should not continue with the second or other sessions.
“Out of the country’s 775 centres, those who failed were not up to 20, and only one failed. Less than 30 of the centres failed at the first session because of ill preparation.
“When such things happen, the candidates should stay aside for the next session to move because questions are designed individually for a candidate,” he said.
