JAMB BLAMES BOKO HARAM ON UTME APPLICATIONS DROP

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), has blamed the 35 percent drop in the number of students who registered for the 2014 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination, UTME, on the activities of Boko Haram insurgency in some parts of the country.

The Registrar and Chief Executive of JAMB, Professor Dibu Ojerinde, said this in Abuja, yesteray, while briefing journalists on the board’s preparation for 2014 UTME, stating that registration for 2014 UTME is 129,139 less than the 1,735,892 recorded in 2013.

According to him, the board had started investigation on reasons Nigerian universities admitted fewer applicants to their carrying capacities.

“We will not reveal our strategies to the public but we know there are security challenges in some parts of the country but of course we have made adequate arrangement to conduct examinations in such States and in everywhere in Nigeria.

“There are some areas full of insecurities and we have made adequate security arrangement and if the worse come to the worse we will result to CBT to such candidates.

“From the Northeast which is one of the troubled areas, the number of candidates coming from there is relatively lower than last year and therefore we had a shortfall and that is the reason why there were lesser candidates this year compared to last year. And you know why it is not only education that is being troubled even the economy of that areas are affected. So therefore not many people are coming out to do the exams.”

On the capacity of Nigerian universities to absorb applicants, Ojerinde said: “Recently, I setup a committee to find out why Nigerian universities admit less figures to their carrying capacities. Spaces are there, the federal government has created a huge access but no admission. Most of Nigerian institutions are not responsive to their carrying capacities”.

Speaking further on the 2014 UTME, he said: “This year’s examination will be in three modes: Computer based test, CBT, Dual Based Test, DBT, and Paper Pencil Test, PPT. This desire to go full-blown CBT has been the resolve of the of the Board, owing to the need to curb examination hitches of result ‘black-outs’ and other forms of malpractice that have been norm in the PPT.