The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board ( JAMB ) says about 1.6 million registration documents for the 2018 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) have so far been sold within two days to end the exercise.
The boardโs Head, Media and Information, Dr Fabian Benjamin, made the disclosure in an interview with our reporter on Friday in Lagos.
The board commenced the sales of the document on Dec. 6, 2017, and had said it would close on Feb. 6.
However, the boardโs Registrar, Prof. Isโhaq Oloyede, on Feb. 6, announced extension of the documents sales to Feb. 11, in attempt to accommodate candidates who failed to register within the two months window.
According to Benjamin, this yearโs registration for the examination has proven to be one of the best in recent times.
โAs at the close of work on Thursday, I can comfortably say that we have registered close to 1.6 million candidates for the examination.
โThis yearโs registration too can be adjudged as one of the best in recent times as it has been smooth, hitch and rancour-free.
โHaving said this though, the board will like to warn that there may be no more extension of period of registration for candidates in our future examinations.
โThis is because some mischievous persons may want to seize the opportunity of the lengthy period of registration to carry out infractions that could undermine the integrity of the examination,โโ.
โWe are seriously considering reducing the registration period to about one month.
โWe no longer want to give fraudsters the opportunity to deploy all kinds of tricks into the process.
โImagine a situation whereby in a whole month, less than 10 per cent registered until when we started approaching the last lap of the exercise.โโ
Reports have it that no date has been fixed for the much anticipated mock UTME with the main examination temporarily scheduled for March 9 to March 17.
