As some candidates lament the glitches they encountered while writing the 2024 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination, UTME, on Friday, Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, JAMB, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, has called on the to calm and not panic.

He assured the the board would reschedule examination for all those found to have encountered problem as a result of technical hitches.

Speaking after monitoring the exam in Kogo-Bwari, Abuja, Prof. Oloyede said so far the UTME had been going on smoothly as only one centre had been reported to have encountered issues.

He said:“We appeal to the public to understand this, some centres will fail. I have heard of only one centre that has failed today.

“By the end of today, I expect about 10 percent of the centres to have one problem or the other because we know the level of development in different parts of the country.

“We are not encouraging this, but when it happens, please do not disrupt others.

“It is important to note that when a session fails because of a problem, you cannot bring those candidates to do session two, they will have to step aside, and the headquarters will have to be contacted.

“The earliest time they can be scheduled will be after 4:30 p.m. so that those slated for sections two and three can write, and these candidates can now write for session four, and in some cases, they can even be scheduled for the following day.”

He expressed displeasure over award of scholarships to UTME best-performing candidates without consideration of other criteria factored in admission.

According to him, such awards were premature.

He said:”MTN and other people are giving scholarships to the highest (scorers) but we have always discouraged them, because you scored high in UTME doesn’t mean you are the best because some other factors will come in; the quality of your O Level will be added to it, Post-UTME scores will be added to it; if you are going to NDA, your physical exercise will be added to it before we can say that you are the best; before we rank you, so why rank people prematurely?

“You will see somebody saying my son scored 330, and in addition to that, he had 7 A1s. Is he not qualified? He might be qualified when you are ranking people in your village; when it comes to Nigeria, he may be 650 despite the so-called brilliant to you.”

Speaking on his expectations from the 2024 UTME, Oloyode said the exercise is expected to be seamless following the introduction of new mechanisms into the exam system.

He said:“Today’s examination is very important to us because we have done so much engineering that we have been trying to do in the last seven years, and we are only successful about it today for the first time.

“Those who are fraudsters, who are doing all sorts of things, know they are in trouble because for the first time we are able to do certain things that we have been aspiring to do.

“We have found out that some of the candidates are giving their details to fraudsters, and fortunately, we thank the security agencies as they have been marvellously good to us.

“Almost all the people who have been doing this (fraudulent activities) are already in their nets. I won’t want to mention the numbers, but I’m very happy to tell you that they are in the nets.

“We thank the Inspector-General of Police, director-general of the State Secret Service (SSS), director-general of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defense Corp, and the Nigerian Police Force National CyberCrime Centre (NPF-NCC).”

Oloyede, who commended the public, especially parents, for their smooth conduct, said parents usually cause problems for students in previous exercises.

Hear him:“Everything appears to be going well. We want to thank the public for heeding our advice because it appears everybody is doing what they are expected to do.

“Things will move smoothly if parents can keep away. They are the ones constituting problems for the students, but you can see everything is going well.”