Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, the Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), has expressed concern over the extortion of Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) candidates by some private secondary schools.
Oloyede, who was featured on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily programme on Monday, monitored by Mega Icon Magazine, further alleged that these institutions mishandled candidates’ data, emphasising that each candidate should register individually using their own phones.
“What we are calling on the candidates to do is that they should go to the centre and register. But one very important thing that we are facing now with students either with disabilities or without disability is that UTME is not a school-based examination.
“There are private secondary schools who are extorting the candidates, they will take 10,000, 20,000 and they say JAMB form whereas they pay just 6,000 or 7,000 as the case may be. They are mismanaging the data of the candidates,” Oloyede said.
“Every candidate is supposed to register with his or her own phone but these people are mixing their data together.
“Even one institution, Federal Government College Bwari wrote to us, ‘Can you give them (people with disabilities) special registration?’ It is not possible, we are not school-based. We register individual candidates who are going into the university, we are not registering cohorts.”
Last year, JAMB took a significant step by establishing 11 UTME centers dedicated exclusively to Persons With Disabilities (PWDs).
During the interview, the JAMB chief clarified that the primary objective behind these specialised centres was to ensure equal opportunities for all candidates undertaking the UTME which aligns with JAMB’s commitment to inclusivity and fairness in the examination process.
He added that JAMB recognised the necessity for special attention to persons with disabilities and consequently opted to establish the centers with the assistance of various individuals and organisations.
“The idea is that those who are suffering from physical disabilities require support. We find out that they need special attention and this special attention cannot be easily available in 774 centres across the country.
“So, what we therefore did was to create centres that are as close as possible to where they are coming from. We know that that is even a strain on them but in order to provide equal opportunity for them, what we have also done is to provide the wherewithal for them and their guide to the centre and we created these centres across the country so that the closer they are to the place of abode of these candidates the better,” Oloyede said.
The JAMB Registrar also confirmed that the registration for the 2024 UTME commenced last week and is scheduled to conclude in the next four weeks.
