The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, JAMB, has announced that it will no longer conduct clearing examinations for UTME candidates who are not biometrically validated.
The board announced this yesterday in its weekly bulletin of the Office of the Registrar in Abuja.
The move was made to tighten the noose around examination malpractice, according to the statement: “The board has decided that the era in which some candidates will present themselves at the examination hall and face difficulties in being biometrically verified and expect the system to allow them . sitting for the exam is over for good.”
“It will be recalled that the board, in its generosity, rescheduled such candidates for the wash-up UTME that was introduced in 2017.” However, after examining the process and its impact on the entire examination value chain, the board recently realized the futility of such a structure.
“Consequently, the board’s management has unfortunately come to the conclusion that all candidates must be verified to sit for their test, as for whatever reason there will be no more wash-up UTMEs.”
“To accommodate the few people who have genuine cases of inability to be caught, such applicants must clearly indicate such difficulties at the time of registration.”
“This is so that they can be assigned to a center in the board’s national headquarters for strict monitoring.”
The bulletin said that the move was implemented not only to clean up the examination process but also to protect the board’s hard-earned reputation.
JAMB said the decision emanated from a careful analysis of the 2022 UTME process by the management, with the need to rectify all vulnerabilities discovered during the investigation.
“Examination malpractice has remained one of the biggest challenges facing all public examination bodies worldwide, necessitating the need for them to take regular steps to tackle the beast.”
“No UTME candidate will be allowed to sit for the examination unless they are biometrically validated.” At the time of registration, all ten fingers of the candidate must be photographed.
“To address the menace of examination malpractice, the board has made full use of technology, including biometric capture of a candidate’s ten fingers at UTME registration.”
“This is to ensure that the fingerprints taken and those given by the candidate at the examination room match,” it says.
The board said that any scenario other than those listed above is an invitation to investigate a security breach.
