Over 1 million have registered for 2013 UTME —Ojerinde

OVER one million candidates were said to have registered for the 2013 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), with about 500,000 more expected to register.
Registrar of the Joint Admission Matriculation Board (JAMB), Professor Dibu Ojerinde, made this known on Saturday, at a press conference in Lagos, while reeling out the achievements of the board, especially the e-testing method that will debut this year.
According to Ojerinde, JAMB had secured 77 centres where the Computer-Based Testing (CBT) would be held.
He noted that the CBT was not compulsory, as every candidate would have the opportunity to choose either the paper-pencil testing (PPT) or the dual-based testing (DBT), where candidates would read the question on the computer and answer on the paper with pencil.
He, however, noted that by 2015, the CBT would become compulsory for all candidates, adding that out of the over one million registered candidates, only about 4,000 had registered for the CBT so far.
“The idea is that 30 minutes after a candidate has finished his or her examinations and left the hall, a graphical result of the test will be sent to the candidate’s phone, while the specific scores will be released in four days.
“By graphical result, I mean a text will be sent to the candidate stating the subjects he or she passed averagely, which is between 50 per cent and 59; above average 60 and above; and below average, which is 49 and below,” Ojerinde said.
He said the PPT and DBT would be held on April 27, adding that as soon as the PPT and DBT centres were exhausted, other candidates would have no other option but to take the CBT.
The JAMB boss stressed the resolve of the examination body to encourage reading culture among Nigerian students, by ensuring every candidate read, at least, two books, with questions to be set from the books.
TRIBUNE