The 2021 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) may be postponed, the registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Is-haq Oloyede, has hinted.
at the possibility of postponement of this year’s)
He said the decision to either postpone the examination which has been slated to hold between June 5 and 19 or to continue as scheduled would be taken later at a meeting billed to hold with concerned individuals and institutions.
Mr Oloyede, who disclosed this on Friday morning during a virtual meeting with relevant parties ahead of the examination, blamed the development on the difficulties being experienced by the candidates in their efforts to register.
The meeting was attended by members of various volunteer groups, which have been lending helping hands to the organisation in the conduct of its examinations since 2017.
Some of those in attendance at the meeting included Peter Okebukola, a retired professor of science education, who chairs JAMB’s equal opportunity group that is saddled with the responsibility of conducting examination for the blind candidates; Chinwe Obaji, a former minister of education, who heads the volunteer group of high-powered opinion leaders, which basically monitors the examination conducts, among other tasks.
There were also representatives of the civil society and mass media groups – the virtue vanguard, peace monitors, among others.
The registrar, however, confirmed that the mock examination, which is slated for May 20, will go on as scheduled.
He said; “We are here to commend you and also to apologise to you for putting you through some hardships, especially in your efforts to register. Most of these things are outside our purview. They have to do with government policies and we have little or no control over them.
“While the mock examination will go on as scheduled, we cannot say the same of the main examination. This is primarily because of NIN. We have more than 600,000 candidates who have indicated interest in our examination but are yet to receive their details.”
