The Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Ishaq Oloyede, has disclosed that the board deliberately posted candidates outside their chosen exam towns for the this year’s unified tertiary matriculation examinations (UTME). Mr. Oloyede, made this known on Sunday while taking part in a webinar briefing with concerned stakeholders, said the decision was part of efforts to curb examination malpractice.

This followed complaints by some parents that their children were posted to computer-based test centres far from the communities they chose to sit the examination.  A parent, John Olanrewaju, said his child selected Sagamu but was posted to Akute near Lagos for the examination.

Explaining, the Registrar of JAMB said the new examination towns have been expanded beyond what they used to represent.

“Based on our past experience, we realised that the narrower the examination towns are, the easier it was for those who register candidates in teams and prearrange their centre allocation.

“So what we did is to expand the centres by grouping states like Lagos into just between six and seven examination towns. If you had chosen Sagamu, it does not mean that you would sit the examination in Sagamu because the examination town extends to places like Akute, Ajuwon, among others. It is also to discourage malpractice.”

The registrar advised candidates whose fingerprints could not be captured by the biometric verification machine not to panic, saying adequate provisions had been made to ensure fair treatment for all. He, however, said they would not be able to sit the examination on their scheduled dates for not being screened.

He equally mentioned that by Thursday, more than 90 percent of candidates would have successfully sat the examination. But the other candidates being handled by the equal opportunity group such as blind candidates would still be writing.