Joint Admisions And Matriculation Board (JAMB) says the introduction of the National Identification Number (NIN) to the UTME registration process has led to the inadvertent benefit of revealing the actual number of candidates registered annually.
Head, Protocol and Public Affairs, Dr. Fabian Benjamin who made clarifications in a statement issued to Education Correspondents Association of Nigeia (ECAN) Wednesday, described the publication in a leading newspaper of Monday, 21 June, 2021, on the above subject matter whose content was purported to be from a telephone interview he granted one of their reporters as a gross misrepresentation of his views.
He however urged that this erroneous impression to be corrected so as not to mislead the public.
“In essence, I had reiterated that the import of the partnership with NIMC which mandated the use of NIN in the registration process, was that the facility has made it virtually impossible for hired examination takers to register multiple times as they used to do to perpetrate their nefarious activities.
“Similarly, I wish to state that the Board is pleased to be vindicated in its belief all along that the huge number of candidates applying for UTME every year could not be realistic especially when seen against the backdrop of WAEC candidates which is always around the figure recorded by the Board this year.
Actually, the Board was pleased to note that the series of measures it had had put in place to ascertain the veracity of its position that the true candidates’ strength should be about 1.5m had yielded the desired results”.
“For instance, it had given several opportunities to ‘latecomer candidates’ by way of several extensions to ensure that they were registered. In fact, the rationale for continuous harvesting of candidates with alleged challenges was informed by the need to create opportunities and flexibilities by the Board in its bid to establish the true figure of its candidates’ population going forward, of course, with natural increase in population factored in and haven harvested all even with those without NIN yet the number still remained the same”. He said.
“Consequently, it is the Board’s firm belief that the introduction of NIN has helped in addressing one of the fundamental channels of perpetrating examination malpractice by way of multiple applications, among others.
It is also worth reiterating that the Board is not a revenue generation entity and, as such, is not interested in the ever-ballooning number of candidates but rather it is concerned with how to address those loopholes being used by fraudsters to distort national data in their bid to compromise public examinations”. He noted.
“As far as the Board is concerned, having a realistic number of candidates sitting its examination is a major achievement which only the partnership with NMC has made possible. Therefore, the Board affirms its resolve not to ever compromise on the integrity of its processes on account of generating fat operating surpluses”.
