JAMB scraps mop-up UTME; insists on no bio-metric, no examination policy

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) says it will no longer conduct mop-up examination for candidates of Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) who are not bio-metrically verified.

The board made this known in its Weekly Bulletin of the office of the Registrar on Monday in Abuja.

It said the move was to further strengthen the noose around examination malpractice.

“The board has decided that the era whereby some candidates will present themselves at the examination venue and claim difficulty to be biometrically verified and expect the system to allow them to sit for the examination is gone for good.

“It will be recalled that the board, out of magnanimity has allowed such candidates to be rescheduled for the mop-up UTME introduced in 2017.

“However, the board has of late, realised the futility of such an arrangement after assessing the process and its impact on the entire examination value chain.

“Consequently, the management of the board has regrettably resolved that all candidates must be verified to sit for their examination as there will be no more mop-ups UTME for whatever reason.

“To cater for the few that may have genuine cases of inability to be captured, such candidates are to clearly indicate such difficulty from the point of registration.

“This is so that they can be assigned to a centre situated within the National headquarters of the board for close monitoring,” it said.

The bulletin noted that measure was not only to sanitise the examination process but also to ensure that the hard-earned reputation of the board was not impugned.

JAMB said that the decision emanated from the management’s rigorous review of the 2022 UTME exercise with the need to close all loopholes noticed during the examination.

“Examination malpractice remained one of the major obstacles faced by all public examination bodies globally, hence, the need for it to consistently take steps to confront the monster.

“No candidate of the UTME will be allowed to sit for its examination without first being biometrically verified. All 10 fingers of the candidate must be captured at the point of registration.

“To combat the menace of examination malpractice, the board has taken full advantage of technology by introducing, among others, biometric capturing of a candidate’s 10 fingers during UTME registration.

“This is to ensure that there is a convincing match between the fingerprints captured and those presented by the candidate at the examination venue,” it said.

The board said that any scenario other than the above was an invitation to examination security breach.

It said the management had scheduled a five-day annual retreat from Sept.18 to Sept. 23 to review and assess its performance in all facets of its operational processes, including the 2022 UTME.

“This is with a view to appraising the challenges faced and fashion strategies to addressing them, while charting a way forward,” JAMB said.