By Funmilayo Adeyemi
The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has shifted the 2023 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examinations (UTME) mock examination earlier scheduled for Thursday, March 16 to Thursday, March 30.
Its Head, Public Affairs and Protocol, Dr Fabian Benjamin told newsmen in Abuja on Monday that the shift became necessary because of the postponement of governorship elections from March 11 to March 18.
“Candidates who registered early and indicated their willingness to take the Mock-UTME would be notified as to when to print their Mock-UTME notification slips, which would contain their centres and other details.
“The Mock-UTME is an optional examination introduced by JAMB to provide opportunity for candidates to have hands-on experience with the system.
“It also affords JAMB an opportunity to ascertain its readiness and that of its partners for the main UTME scheduled to hold between April 29 and May 12, 2023.
“The board also uses this opportunity to announce that the 2023 UTME would witness some ground-breaking innovations to address observed infractions and centre failures.
“For instance, in the new regime, if there is a delay of up to one hour before the commencement of a particular session, that session stands cancelled and would be rescheduled along with the candidates,’’ he said.
Benjamin added that by the same token no examination would be started one hour after the scheduled commencement time as the session would be scheduled for any vacant or available slot
“JAMB has made it mandatory that candidates must be notified of their new scheduled sessions or centres, as the case may be, before they leave their original centre.
“In addition, no candidate would be allowed to spend less than one hour before submission of responses during the UTME.
“Similarly, the new regime would make it impossible for candidates to login after one hour of activation of examination.
“If for any reason an examination session is cancelled or cannot hold, candidates are not to panic as they will simply be scheduled for the next available session, which could be that same day,’’’ he said.
Benjamin called on candidates who might experience delays to log into the system to quietly leave the hall and move to the “Holding Area’’ to await further instructions.
He also urged candidates not to leave the examination centre until they had been notified of the day and time of their rescheduled examination.
“Candidates are to note that any rescheduled examination is strictly to accommodate only those whose examination session could not hold on account of one reason or another.
“It is not for those who were marked LATE or ABSENT for their session,’’ he stressed.
(NAN)
