Joint Admissions and Matriculations Board has said that it will commence sale of Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination form to candidates on January 10, 2019.

This was made known during a meeting between JAMB and Computer Based Test centres at University of Lagos, on Thursday, where Registrar of JAMB, Mr Is-haq Oloyede, also said registration for UTME would no longer be done at cybercafés but at accredited CBT centres.

Oloyede stated that limiting of registration of candidates to only approved CBT centres was to end extortion of candidates, mixing up of pupils’ data, malpractice, as well as for monitoring purposes.

He said, “Cybercafés overcharge pupils and mix up data which makes pupils suffer. They also do services they don’t have the capacity to do. All these, coupled with the fact that there is no way of tracking them because they were not registered, we have limited registration to CBT centres that can be monitored.

“From now on, all essential services; creation of candidate profile, uploading WAEC and NECO results, collating biometric details, would be done at CBT centres. To reduce the incidence of data mix up, prospective candidates will verify their data by fingerprint before it is submitted and printed out.”

The registrar, however, advised CBT proprietors and managers to maintain the highest standards as he threatened to weed out non-performers.

“Even as essential services are restricted to you, you have to look beyond the revenue and deliver quality service because you will be constantly monitored. Even as 80 per cent of CBT centres performed well in 2018. We have eliminated those that didn’t do well. Fifty centres were sanctioned for registration infractions and against 2019, we have 718 accredited CBT centres which will help in spreading digital literacy,” he said.

Oloyede added that the sale of registration forms would span six weeks, as he gave the assurance that the general elections would not affect UTME because the board had adjusted its examination schedule ahead of the election. He also said the registration portal would make provision for deaf candidates so they can be well attended to in their respective centres.

Punch