About 844,083 candidates, who sat for the two of the three modes of the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination, UTME, conducted last Saturday scored below 200. The figure represents 83 percent of results released yesterday by the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board, JAMB, which conducted the examination.
Briefing newsmen in Abuja JAMB Registrar, Prof Dibu Ojerinde said a total of 1,015,504 candidates applied for the two modes of the examination, Paper Pencil Test, PPT, and Dual Based Test, DBT.
The figures are 990,179 and 25,325 for the PPT and DBT respectively. According to him, while 108,512 scored above 200 in the PPT, 1,332 candidates achieved similar feat in the DBT. 174 visually-impaired candidates sat for the exam, while 36,164 results were invalid. Withheld results stood at 36,164, as 37,315 applicants did not show up.
A total of 1,865 centres were used for the PPT, while 133 centres were used for DBT across the country, Ojerinde stated. The exercise was the sixth edition of the UTME, even as candidates for the Computer Based Test will have their turn on Saturday 17th May, this year. Ojerinde said JAMB did not conduct the examination in Biu.
“As such, no candidate’s life was lost. The Board is mindful of the security challenge in the nation and will continue to work with the relevant security organizations to ensure that our candidates’ lives are protected,” he added.
According to him, the board witnessed a ‘remarkable’ decrease in the number of applicants that registered for the PPT. He attributed the reduction to growing confidence of candidates in the CBT, which according to him will be full blown by next year. He informed that Prison candidates were to take the CBT, assuring that appropriate arrangements were in place for them.
