2022 UTME: JAMB Announces New Exam Date, Gives Reason For Reschedule

The 2022 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination, UTME mock examination will no longer hold on April 16, the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has announced.

The exam body announced this in its Weekly Bulletin of the Office of the Registrar on Monday in Abuja, Naija News reports.

Explaining why the exam date was rescheduled, JAMB said it understood the initial date was an Easter Saturday, a symbolic and holiday day, celebrated by Christians to mark the end of the Lent period before Easter Sunday.

JAMB announced that the mock exam will now hold on April 9, and not April 16 as earlier scheduled.

The board also noted that the date for the exercise had been affected also by the shift in date for the registration of the UTME and Direct Entry (DE), which was earlier scheduled for Feb.12, but later commenced on Feb.19.

JAMB urged all candidates who registered and would want to sit for the mock exercise to note the change of date and be prepared.

The 2022 registration commenced on Saturday, February 19, and would end on March 26.

The UTME however has been scheduled by JAMB to hold from May 6 to May 16, Naija News reports.

Meanwhile, barely two weeks ago, the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, faulted JAMB, over its operations which include the conduct of higher institutions admission.

The varsity lecturers said JAMB is operating outside its jurisdiction and must immediately desist.

Naija News understands that ASUU made its stand known in a statement signed and released through its national president, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke.

According to the academic union, JAMB’s action of handling higher institutions admission was an encroachment into the University autonomy, stressing that the exam body had no power to decide qualification for admission and had no power to give admission or delist programmes of universities.

The statement read partly: “The autonomy of universities is under increasing threat by the meddlesome activities of JAMB in admission processes and regulation of academic activities in the Nigerian University System.

“JAMB was created by an Act of the National Assembly in 1978 and is responsible for the conduct of matriculation examinations for admission into a tertiary institution in Nigeria, the appointment of examiners and collection/dissemination of information on all matters relating to entrance examinations. It is the prerogative and responsibility of each university senate to superintend over all academic matters in the university. These include setting the admission requirements and approval of university undergraduate and postgraduate programmes.”

ASUU stressed that JAMB was just an examination body and clearinghouse for admission into tertiary institutions.

It noted that giving admission to candidates is the duty of the Senate, while regulation or accreditation of programmers is the prerogative of the National Universities Commission, Naija News reports.