Some candidates who registered to take the 2020 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination, UTME, yesterday could not take the exam because they got to their centre late. The candidates, who were scheduled to write the examination at the Global Distance Learning Programme Institute, opposite the Ministry of Finance, Central Business District, Abuja, were not allowed to enter the exam hall because they were minutes late.
This led to a protest by the candidates and their parents. When it became obvious to them that the officials are not ready to shift grounds and allow the candidates to take the exam, some of the candidates started crying inconsolably.
Some of the affected candidates who spoke to newsmen said they arrived late because JAMB provided multiple addresses in their printed slips. They said the multiplicity of examination towns provided by JAMB caused them to find their examination centre difficult to locate. The students said they had gone to Suleja and Madalla, both in Niger State as early as 4 am and were unable to locate the Global Distance Learning Institute which was indicated in their printed slips as their examination centre before they were redirected to a centre in Abuja municipal area for the examination that was billed to start at 7:00 am. “
However, the JAMB's head of media, Dr Fabian Benjamin, denied this. According to him, the affected candidates mistook examination centres for examination towns. He explained that instead of going to their examination centres, the candidates went to examination town chosen by the board to guide them on the limitation of the area their examination centres were restricted to.
He stated emphatically that JAMB doesn’t condone lateness, adding that the candidates who missed their scheduled examination would not be rescheduled as their questions which were individually programmed have returned to the source.
