By Ngozi Nwankwo, Abuja and Richard Akintade, Osogbo
No fewer than 1,837, 011 candidates will be sitting for the 2022 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination, UTME nationwide today.
The 1,837,011 candidates who registered between February 19th and March 26th 2022 would be jostling to occupy the 500,000 admission spaces in the Nigerian public universities beginning today.
Nigerian Pilot reports that this implies that at least 1.3 million of the candidates will not be admitted into public universities in the next academic session.
Our correspondent noted that there is an increase in the figure (1,837,011) this year compared to 2021 where a total number of 1,338,687 candidates were registered for UTME.
As contained in the JAMB bulletin, the examination, which is computer-based, will be conducted in 645 centres approved by JAMB nationwide. The examination will last for nine days (from May 6 to 14).
Of the 1,837,011 registered candidates, 1,769,197 registered for UTME and 100,153 registered for the direct entry examination.
Meanwhile, to ensure that the Board’s examination meets best global practices, it has prohibited the use of many devices into the examination centres such as watches, pen/ biro, mobile phones or similar electronic devices, spy reading classes which should be scrutinised, calculators or similar electronic devices.
Other devices included, USD,CD, Hard Disks or similar storage smart lenses, ink/pen readers, key holders, ATM cards, money, eraser, hoodies, fez caps, beanie caps or any type of cap, face towel, and Bluetooth.
JAMB, however, warned that any breach of this directive would bar the candidates from taking the examination.
Meanwhile, The Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) Osun State Command has said 100 of its personnel will be deployed to all designated Joint Admission Matriculation Board (JAMB) centers across the State.
The State Commandant, Emmanuel Ocheja in a statement issued on Thursday therefore, called on parents and guardians to warn their wards to do away with any incriminating material, as anyone found culpable will be dealt with in line with the extant laws.
