The Joint Admission and Matriculation Examination Board (JAMB) has said a total of 1, 606, 753 candidates are to write the 2014 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) to be conducted by the board on Saturday.
The Registrar of the board, Prof. Dibu Ojerinde, said that out of the figure, 990, 179 candidates applied for Paper Pencil Test (PPT), while 616, 574 candidates applied for Computer Based Test (CBT), and only 25, 325 candidates applied for Dual Based Test (DBT).
While the total sum of 1, 606, 753 registered for this year’s examination, 1, 735, 892 candidates registered and wrote the 2013 UTM examination.
The decrease in the application by 129, 130 in the number of candidates in this year’s examination, Ojeride said has been attributed to the current spate of insecurity threatening a part of the country.
Ojerinde, who made the revelation while briefing Education reporters in Bwari, FCT yesterday, also noted that many Nigerian universities have consistently lagged behind in meeting their carrying capacities by failing to fill available spaces in their universities with successful candidates that excelled in the UTME.
The development, he said, has deprived many Nigerian youths who though performed very well in the examination conducted annually by the board failed to secure admission into Nigerian universities.
The registrar lamented that most Nigerian universities are not responsive to their carrying capacities approved for them by the National Universities Commission (NUC) to the extent that, most of them have consistently failed to fill up to 50 percent of the available spaces in their institutions.
He stated further that the universities involved in this unfortunate conduct are mostly federal universities, reiterating that the development has become worrisome and has prompted him to direct his officers to send the table of the ‘approved carrying capacities’ to each of the federal universities to explain to Nigerians their challenges and why youths who pass JAMB examination can no longer be admitted to fill the available spaces in there universities.
“About 30 percent are being given admissions annually. For example, out of 1.6 million that wrote JAMB examination last year (2013), only 745, 000 spaces were available. Let me also now say, unfortunately, I have the statistic of what is happening, it is very painful that our institutions are not responding to these carrying capacities. They are not responding to them to the extent that as I’m talking today, most of the universities, especially federal universities, they have not filled up to 50 percent of their carrying capacities”, he said.
While speaking further on the forthcoming examination, he explained that while both the Paper Pencil Test (PPT) and the Dual Based Test (DBT) examination will be held on Saturday April 12, in all centres in the country and overseas, the Computer Based Test (CBT) examination will be held on Saturday, April 17, 2014.
Ojeride stated that in the ongoing effort by the board’s management to sustain its initiative in the CBT as a more reliable way of eradicating malpractices in JAMB and similar public examinations in the country, the board will be conducting the examination in three modes including the PPT, DBT and CBT in the respective centres.
“The level of success recorded at the 2013 UTME is no doubt a testimony for us to take into consideration the three mode for a gradual process of wiping away both the PPT and DBT in JAMB examination in future, leaving only BCT as the basis of examining the candidates”, Ojerinde added.
He added that in order to facilitate the conduct of CBT examination, 10 Computer Based Test (CBT) centres have been established in some states across the country.
The centres, according to him include Jigawa, Kwara, Oyo, Delta, Ekiti, Taraba, Niger and Benue states while the tenth centre is in Kubwa in the FCT, where candidates can conveniently write their examination without stress, as the centres have been equipped with computers for usage.
While commending the improvement in the CBT examination being conducted so far, Ojerinde however, said, some states are still lagging behind in CBT saying the 10 highest state in PPT include: Imo, Enugu , Anambra, Benue, Delta, Edo, Akwa Ibom, Kaduna, Kogi and Abia.
He also reflected that the 10 highest states in DBT with marginal improvement include Osun, Ondo, Imo, Kwara, Ekiti, Ogun, Oyo, Edo, Anambra and Kogi which he said were listed in order of least improvement in the said exam.
Furthermore, he said the 10 states that have significantly improved and now lowest in the PPT include FCT, Zamfara, Sokoto, Yobe ,Jigawa, Lagos, Kebbi, Ekiti, Borno and Bauchi.
Also in the categorisation, Ojeride said, those 10 states now rated lowest in the DBT examination comprise of Sokoto, Kebbi, FCT, Adamawa, Zamfara, Taraba , Bauchi, Bayelsa, Jigawa and Gombe.
While appealing to both the candidates and the invigilators to conduct themselves in line with the examination regulations and rules, the registrar assured that anyone caught in the act of examination malpractices, will be dealt with in line with the provisions of the Decree No. 33 of 1999 as prescribed.