From Fred Ezeh, Abuja
Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has accused Stella Maris School, a privately-owned secondary school in Abuja, of extorting candidates as they register for the 2023 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).
JAMB Registrar, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, discovered the alleged sharp practice when he visited some Computer Based Test (CBT) centres in Abuja, notably, Total Child International School, Dutse, JAMB Abuja Zonal Office, Life Camp, Global Distance Learning Institute and Sascon International College, Abuja respectively, to assess the ongoing UTME registration exercise.
Prof. Oloyede said: “Registration is going on well across the country except that some schools and CBT centres are sabotaging our efforts. Some of them have engaged in sharp practices and extortion of candidates. But we are engaging and punishing them adequately.
“We must know that UTME is not a school-based examination. It’s for individual candidates. Unfortunately, some schools are engaging in some form of extortion. You can see what a school, Stella Maris, Abuja, has done. They were caught collecting N30,000 from candidates in the name of JAMB instead of the approved N3,500 fee. Both the candidates and one of their teachers confirmed the development.
“Some of these schools engage in bulk PIN purchase and registration, and at the end, they would mix up the telephone numbers of the candidates, thus making things, particularly communication with JAMB difficult for the candidates.
“So, once they keep the telephone numbers of candidates, it is unlikely that the candidates would receive information from JAMB when contacted in the cause of this exercise.
“For instance, if we want to make a change in their timetable, and send text messages to them, it won’t get to them. After they have graduated from the school and, possibly, want to do change of course, they won’t have access to their profile page. We would take adequate steps to make sure that we stop that.”
As the result of the development, the JAMB registrar announced the suspension of bulk PIN purchase and registration to curb the identified alleged extortions being carried on by some schools and CBT centres.
Prof. Oloyede added: “Going forward, we will direct every CBT centre operator to stop doing bulk purchase of PIN and bulk registration. And punishment awaits CBT centre that violates the directive.
“If a CBT centre operator sells more than one PIN to a source or collects money for more than one PIN from a source, then we will sanction the CBT centre.”
He, thus, encouraged candidates to freely report cases of extortion, taking advantage of a code provided for candidates to reach JAMB when they come across any of such case, while promising there would be a reward for such act.
Prof. Oloyede, however, confirmed that over 1.16 million candidates had successfully registered to sit for the 2023 UTME, insisting that the deadline for registration would not be extended.
He recalled that the sale of the 2023 UTME form commenced on Saturday, January 14, 2023, adding that it was expected to close on Tuesday, February14, 2023.