Registrar of Joint Admissions and Registration Board (JAMB) Prof. Ishaq Oloyede was in Lagos on Thursday to address challenges candidates were facing registering for the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).
He blamed parents and tutorial centres for some of the challenges candidates faced in the course of the registration process, which he had described many times as seamless.
The deadline for registration for the 2021 UTME was May 29.
However, the Board gave a two-week extension from May 31 to June 15 to candidates who were unable to complete their registration to do so.
The Nation however discovered that fresh candidates also came in to register at JAMB office.
Registration for this year’s examination has been particularly difficult because the board made National Identification Number (NIN) a pre-requisite for registration.
The Nation reported the hassles many candidates faced enrolling for the NIN and the difficulties in sending the NIN to JAMB for verification before they could create their profile codes for registration.
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Oloyede said at the JAMB Headquarters annex in Ikoyi that candidates experienced difficulties because they did not follow the laid down procedure.
He said his interaction with candidates revealed that the reasons for the late registration ranged from Inability to get the NIN on time and inadequate funds, to their inability to generate profile code.
Oloyede interviewed many candidates at the Ikoyi office to learn the reasons behind their late registration.
He said majority of the candidates caused their own problems by sending the wrong details to get their code; or sending their NIN to the wrong short code.
He also complained about the overbearing influence of parents and how tutorial centres were misleading candidates with wrong information and registering underage candidates.
Candidates are meant to send their NIN as text message to 55019 to get their profile code for registration. JAMB also launched a USSD (*55019*1*NIN#) on April 30 that candidates could use as an alternative.
“I have not found any challenge beyond the problems of parents. If you go out there you will find a large number of parents who have no business here.
“They are also too intruding, misleading their children. The mothers took over their lives sending wrong things to wrong numbers. Instead of 55019, they send to 55016; instead of sending the boy’s NIN, they send the sister’s NIN; instead of allowing the child to register they are registering with their own postpaid phone that the system will not allow.
“Some of them are even using bonuses of their phone which the system will not accept they are just compounding problems for these children.”
“You can also see flimsy excuses apart from few who confessed that they do not have the money, you could also see these private operators – they call them tutorial classes – hold the system to ransom.
Contrary to claims that over 600,000 candidates were unable to complete their registration, Oloyede said about 1.4 million candidates registered and only 17,758 candidates had issues.
He said Lagos had the largest number of candidates with issues – 3,200, while 1,300 were found in Kwara; 1,300 in Abuja, 1,000 in Oyo, 1,000 in Kano, among others.
Oloyede emphasised that no candidate would be registered without NIN but that the Board would see what it can do about the candidates with issues without stopping the registration process.
“Without NIN nobody will be registered so but those who have problems of “I got the something late”, we would see what we can do without stopping the process of course it may be after the first set of exam we will organise a set for them,” he said.