UTME Underage Candidates to Face Additional Exams- JAMB

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The Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, JAMB Prof. Is-haq Oloyede, has announced that underage exceptionally brilliant candidates permitted to take the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination, UTME will undergo four additional series of exams to gain admission into their preferred institutions.

Prof. Oloyede made this statement during an inspection tour of Computer-Based Test, CBT centers in Ilorin, Kwara State.

He explained that these candidates must sign an indemnity letter before sitting for the UTME, and those who fail to meet the required standards will face sanctions.

According to Prof. Oloyede, this new policy aims to ensure that only qualified candidates are admitted to tertiary institutions.

“There are four examinations they will first of all face. Initially, we wanted to block under-16 candidates from writing the UTME – but if you don’t give them the opportunity, how do you know when you see exceptionally good ones? That’s why we put it with an indemnity,” he explained.

The JAMB Registrar, who put the number of candidates below the age of 16 at 4,997 as of Monday afternoon, noted that some parents use their children to prove selfish claims and ambitions, emphasizing the need for a fair and transparent admission process in line with the Board’s policy.

He also warned CBT centre operators against blank registration, false allegations against JAMB, violation of candidates’ profiles (contrary to data practice law), and night registration.

“When we started, we sanctioned about six of them for blank registration and preparation for exam malpractice, and we sanctioned them. What we have now done is to identify the staff of the institution that did what was wrong, and we have blacklisted them – they will never be involved in JAMB activities,” he stressed.