By Favour Nnabugwu The Joint Admissions and
Matriculation Board, JAMB
said yesterday that only 10
candidates scored 300
marks and above in the
last Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination,
UTME, in the country even
as some candidates printed
customised shirts and T-
shirts where anticipated
answers were prepared to cheat during the
examination. JAMB Registrar, Professor,
‘Dibu Ojerinde who made
this known in Abuja while
addressing newsmen said
that 40 centres were
involved in cheating during the examination, where
some candidates paid
between N5,000 and
N20,000 to be allowed to
cheat. He however, said that
JAMB was investigating
the centres where
malpractices took place,
pointing out that those 40
centres might be barred from future UTME if found
guilty. He also noted that
he did not wish to pre-
empt the sanctions to be
applied until investigations
were concluded. Candidates writing the
UTME at the University of
Abuja, Saturday. Candidates writing the UTME at the University of Abuja, Saturday. According to Ojerinde,
apart from the 10
candidates who scored
above 300 marks, 628
others scored between 270
– 299; 33,115 scored 250 – 269: 704,622 scored 200
and above while 801,804
scored below 200. He also said that the board
recorded 40,692 invalid
results due to multiple
shading or no shading at all
by candidates while the
examination was successfully conducted in
3,168 centres. Ojerinde further said that
1,629,102 candidates
applied to sit for the Paper
Pencil Test, PPT, while
15,508 candidates applied
for the Dual Based Test, DBT bringing the total of
candidates to 1,644,110.
Out of this figure, 47,974
were absent. A breakdown of the
number of the candidates
that sat for the UTME
showed that 1,670,833
applied to go to the
universities while 28,977 and 28,445 chose
Polytechnics and Colleges
of Education respectively
even as only 25 chose the
newly established
Innovative Enterprises Institutes. Innovative Enterprises
Institutes according to him,
are institutions where
skills acquisition are their
mandates. Speaking further, he noted
that the result of 78,309
candidates from various
centres were at present,
undergoing screening to
ascertain their culpability in malpractices, while
12,110 candidates’ results
were being withheld for
possible disciplinary action. On the candidates who
printed special T-shirts and
shirts with prepared
answers, he regretted that
candidates for the UTME
had always devised new methods of cheating on
yearly basis. The Registrar
stressed that the
examination cheats had
graduated from using
‘’magic slippers’’ to customised T-shirts and
shirts in which anticipated
answers were imprinted in
the sleeves as well as
inside the T-shirts. “Details of the results in
order of merit according to
courses and institutions of
choice of candidates will
be dispatched to
universities, polytechnics, monotechnics, colleges of
education and innovative
enterprises institutes at
the appropriate time for
the purposes of 2013/2014
admissions. “It is the policy of the
board to ensure that equal
opportunity is given to all
candidates seeking
placement in the nation’s
tertiary institutions regardless of their physical
status. We will continue to
appeal to stakeholders to
show more interest in the
acquisition of higher
education by this category of citizens. “The board hereby reminds
everybody that it has
implemented the Federal
Government’s policy which
stipulates that all
candidates seeking admissions into the
universities, polytechnics,
monotechnics, colleges of
education and Innovative
Enterprises Institutes,
Police Academy and the Nigerian Defence
Academy, NDA, must sit for
the UTME being conducted
by the JAMB. “The board will continue to
appeal to the various state
governments concerned to
provide their indigenes
with enough capacity
building programmes that would allow them apply
directly to the board so as
to compete favourably
with their counterparts in
other states of the
federation. Let me once again state that candidates
are allowed to change
their choices of institutions
and courses only once,’’ he
added, noting that the
change of institutions must be effected before May 17,
2013, or two weeks from
yesterday. Ojerinde stressed that the
Computer Based Test, CBT
would hold from Saturday,
May 18, 2013, to June 1,
2013 and requested
candidates to ensure that they reprint their e-
registration slips afresh so
as to be sure of their
centres.http://vanguardngr.com