JAMB may disenfranchise thousands from writing 2021 exams - NANS | EduCeleb
EduCeleb
31st May 2021
National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) Kaduna State Chapter on Monday has raised concerns that thousands of candidates would be disenfranchised from taking part in this year’s Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) examination due to hitches in their NIN/Profile code.
NANS Chairman in Kaduna State, Axiz Huziafa Bello in a statement disagreed with the JAMB on reasons it gave, hence, called for extension If electronic registration instead of risking students’ lives to travel to JAMB headquarters in their respective states for manual registration.
According to him, JAMB has shut out thousands of candidates who were unable to obtain profile codes before May 27 from registering online for this year’s examinations. As a result, we have been inundated with calls and all manner of correspondences by students, parents and other concerned persons who have expressed their dissatisfaction and bitterness at this decision taken by the Board.
“Obtaining a profile code is mandatory for all prospective JAMB candidates. This year’s procedure has been plagued with numerous challenges due to the requirement that candidates have to link their phone numbers with their National Identity Number (NIN).
“These challenges have already caused a shift in the closing date for registration from May 15 to May 29 and a shift in the examination dates as well. But even with the 2 weeks extension granted by JAMB, thousands of candidates are still out there without the mandatory profile code and those that got their profile code delivered to their phones after May 27 could not purchase the required PIN to proceed with the registration.
“If the candidates couldn’t obtain profile codes due to hitches on JAMB’s servers, is it fair to close the registration portal in such a manner without allowing them to register and thereby jeopardizing the educational future of these young fellows? He queried.
He continued “from available statistics the board has only registered about 1.3 million candidates as compared to over two million It did last year and this figure represents the lowest turnout for the exams in decades.
“The low enrolment figures are directly attributed to the NIN requirement and the difficulty in obtaining the “almighty” profile code which cost N50 per trail and could cost a candidate a couple of hundreds or some thousands of Naira before receiving the codes on their mobile phones,” he said.
Bello noted that the news bulletin JAMB released on Monday, May 31, 2021, titled, “issues surrounding the 2021 UTME registration: Option available for genuine candidates who made attempts but could not register”, showed that the management has failed to show empathy for the hardship and agony of these candidates.
“Hence, we are using this medium to appeal to the management of JAMB and calling on other Nigerians as well to prevail on the management of JAMB to desist from unleashing hardship on Nigerian students in their noble quest for higher education and self-development, extend the registration period and postpone the exam in the interest of justice and fairness”, he added.