‘Why JAMB won’t extend UTME/DE registration deadline’
The Registrar, Joint Admissions and Matriculations Board (JAMB), Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, is excited at the ease with which registrants take advantage of the Electronic Personal Identification Number (e-PIN) vending outlets of the Nigerian Postal Service (NIPOST).
NIPOST had, since April 2021, announced to the general public, especially prospective 2021 JAMB candidates, of its arrangements to commence the vending of JAMB e-PINs as announced by the JAMB Registrar on Thursday, April 8, 2021 in all post offices in the country.
Fielding questions from journalists, while on a working visit to Ibadan, Oyo State, to monitor the progress of the exercise, Oloyede hinted that over 500,000 PINs had already being vended.
He disclosed that he was excited with the capacity with which NIPOST was setting the pace for other vendors, adding that no other vendor had sold more than 10 per cent of the PINs compared with NIPOST’s performance.
The e-PIN service is part of NIPOST’s new initiatives towards its renewal as a digital economy-compliant agency of the Federal Government.
The Postmaster General (PMG), Dr. Ismail Adewusi, in a statement signed by the Director, Corporate Communications, NIPOST, Frankling Alao, asserted that the organisation was not relenting in its commitment towards total renewal for modern services to Nigerians.
JAMB has also said the ongoing 2022 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination/Direct Entry (UTME-DE) registration, scheduled to end March 26, 2022, will not be extended.
According to JAMB, this is because the time fixed for the registration – February 19 to March 26, 2022 – is the only window allotted for the exercise by relevant authorities to the board.
The board’s spokesman, Fabian Benjamin, disclosed in Abuja, yesterday: “Registration and examination dates are not fixed arbitrarily, but through a consensus of opinions of the Federal Ministry of Education and examination agencies.
“Hence, before the commencement of registration or examination for any given year, all public examinations bodies are invited to a roundtable where they are expected to agree on the timetable of activities for each examination agency and which must be strictly adhered to.”
The board urged prospective candidates for the 2022/23 UTME/DE to register immediately, as only two weeks remains for the exercise.
It added: “The general public should note that it is practically impossible for the board to even contemplate any extension of registration, as sister examination bodies such as West African Examinations Council (WAEC), National Examination Council and National Business and Technical Examinations Board (NABTEB) have their allotted time, which the board cannot usurp.”
