Matters Arising – Reuben Abati Writes

I attended a meeting recently at the headquarters of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board in Bwari, Abuja: the
post-2017 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination review meeting chaired by the
JAMB registrar, Professor Ish-aq Oloyede.

Participants included Professor Oloyede and his technical team, field officers and other staff, all the Chief External Examiners who
supervised the 2017 UTME, across Nigeria, mostly Vice-Chancellors of universities, and provosts/rectors of polytechnics and colleges of education, in addition to major
stakeholders from civil society.

The JAMB Registrar presented a detailed report on the conduct of the 2017 UTME, matters arising were identified and the
meeting took certain decisions about the way forward, the details of which have since
been published. The 2017 UTME was conducted throughout Nigeria between Saturday 13th and Saturday 20th May 2017,
at 140 examination centres, 642 Computer- Based Test Centres, with 7,000 invigilators and monitors and 1, 722, 236 candidates.

It was the first examination to be conducted under Professor Oloyede’s watch as JAMB
Registrar. He was full of appreciation for the efforts and contributions of everyone,
including the civil society and security agencies who helped to ensure the success of the examination. The meeting noted that Oloyede and his team had also done an excellent job in organizing a commendable
Computer-Based Examination across the country. In recent years, JAMB has insisted on computerizing its examinations, and under Oloyede, there has been not only an emphasis on this but also on the integrity
and credibility of the examination.

The Report presented by the JAMB Registrar was comprehensive, confident and informative.