The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) says candidates affected by technical glitches will be reassigned new Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) dates and centres.
The board said the move is to ensure that no registered candidate is denied the opportunity to sit the examination.
JAMB’s Public Communication Adviser, Dr Fabian Benjamin, gave the assurance on Friday in Abuja during the Senate Committee on Tertiary Institutions and TETFund’s monitoring of the ongoing UTME.
Benjamin spoke while responding to concerns raised by parents and candidates affected by technical disruptions at the Good Success Computer-Based Test (CBT) Centre in Utako.
He said the board anticipated minor operational challenges, given the nationwide scale of the examination, and had put mechanisms in place to address them promptly.
“Naturally, you will have one or two challenges here and there. It is not unusual, and I don’t think anyone would conduct an exam across a thousand centres and expect no problems.
“The most important thing is, if these problems occur, are you prepared to handle them? And that is what we have done,” he said.
Benjamin assured that JAMB would continue rescheduling affected candidates where necessary and would also conduct a mop-up examination for those unable to write due to centre failures.
He explained that the mop-up exercise is designed to accommodate candidates whose examinations were disrupted, stressing that the board remains committed to fulfilling its obligation to all registered candidates.
Benjamin added that only a few centres out of the 957 deployed nationwide had experienced operational failures.
Earlier, the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Tertiary Institutions and TETFund, Sen. Mohammed Dandutse, acknowledged that while progress has been recorded in the conduct of the examination, several challenges still require urgent attention.
Dandutse said the committee would intensify oversight to ensure improvements in JAMB’s operations and prevent a recurrence of technical disruptions.
“From what we have seen, there is progress, but there are also challenges faced by the centres.
“This is not only in Abuja; it is across the country. We appreciate what we have seen so far.
“The issue is technical. It happened yesterday and again today, as explained by the supervisor.
“But the truth is that these challenges should be addressed before the examination takes place,” he said.
He noted that the committee had directed JAMB to take immediate corrective measures to ensure affected candidates can sit the examination without further hardship.
The senator assured that the National Assembly would review the board’s activities and work towards ensuring that all CBT centres operate efficiently.
He stressed that candidates who traveled long distances to examination centres should not be subjected to hardship caused by avoidable technical failures.
Meanwhile, some parents and candidates expressed dissatisfaction over repeated postponements.
A parent, Mr David Afolayan, said his daughter had been unable to write the examination after reporting at the centre on two consecutive days due to network failure.
Afolayan questioned why longstanding technical issues had not been resolved despite legislative oversight of the education sector, noting that candidates incurred significant transportation expenses.
Similarly, a candidate, Eunice Peter, who traveled from Kaduna State, said she spent money on transportation and accommodation but was unable to sit the examination on both scheduled days.
She appealed to authorities to address logistical challenges to reduce the financial and emotional burden on candidates.
The UTME, which entered its second day on Friday, is being conducted nationwide across accredited CBT centres.
