- Safiu Kehinde
Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board Prof Isiaq Oloyede on Wednesday broke down in tears as he admitted that the organization made mistakes in its handling of the last Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination.
A visibly worried Oloyede who addressed journalists on Wednesday was making clarifications over issues that have emerged after thousands of candidates could not sit for the examinations.
The development had caused nationwide outrage with JAMB last week announcing that over 70 percent of candidates who sat for examination scored below 200 marks.
In the wake of the public outrage, the board commenced the review of the candidates’ results yesterday with some stakeholders after the widespread complaints of low scores by candidates who were said to have a track record of better performance.
Speaking on the outcome of the review on Wednesday, Oloyede said the board has decided that all candidates affected in 157 out of 882 centres will be contacted to retake their examinations starting Friday, 16 May.
“So, I appeal to the candidates and those affected by the error of our system to accept this explanation as the truth of the matter without embellishment, PLEASE. I apologise and take full responsibility, not just in words,
“We have decided that all the candidates affected in the 157 centres out of 882 centres will be contacted to retake their examinations starting Friday, May 16, 2025.” Oloyede said.
However, the JAMB Registrar’s admittance of error is against the backdrop of initial commendation by the Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa.
NPO Reported that the Minister’s had in an interview of Channels TV last week commended JAMB adoption of the Computer-Based Testing (CBT) which he claimed reduced the rate of examination malpractice.
While announcing plan to adopt CBT in conduct of the West African Secondary School Certification Examination (WASSCE) and the National Examination Council (NECO), Alausa has attributed the mass failure recorded in UTME to the culture of examination malpractice at the WASSCE and NECO.
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