ConGratuLation!! JAMB Have Reduces Questions And Exam Hours

LATEST ON UTME(JAMB): With effect from 2017 , candidates sitting for the
Unified Tertiary Matriculation
Examination would spend two hours
instead of three hours , the Joint
Admissions and Matriculation Board said
on Wednesday . The test on Use of English which used to
be 100 questions has been reduced to 60
questions , while the other three subjects
would be 40 questions each , making a
total of 180 questions .

The organisation said the reduction in
hours was in line with international best
standards and practices where no
candidate sits for an examination such as
UTME for more than two hours . The Registrar /Chief Executive of
JAMB, Prof . Is – haq Oloyede , announced the changes in Kaduna during
the commencement of a strategic
planning retreat on monitoring ,
supervision and evaluation of 2017 UTME
with the theme , ‘ Inclusiveness and
sensitisation of key external actors. ’ Oloyede said , “We are going to reduce
the duration of the examination for this
year ’ s UTME . You cannot keep
children of this age for three hours . For
their age , the maximum time you can
keep them is two hours . So , we are considering the reduction in the time they
spend because once it is more than two
hours , you can ’ t expect that they will
retain their presence of mind. ” JAMB also announced innovation in the use of computer for the test , saying, “
From the general feedback on the
adoption of the Computer Based Test
mode , we have noted the challenge of
computer low level literacy of some
candidates , especially with the phobia for the mouse . This has been responsible
partly for the call by some people for
reversal to the Paper and Pencil Test
mode . In order to ensure equity and
level playing field for all candidates
taking the UTME , JAMB has designed a system that will allow candidates to use
only eight keys without the use of the
mouse . “ All the candidates need to do is to
press the letters A , B , C , D for responses (answer ) to questions and
keys : P = Previous question , N = Next
question , S = Submit responses when candidate has finished examination R =
Reverse (do not intend to go further to
submit again ). ” JAMB also said special privileges would be accorded to blind candidates in the
UTME , including “ the transportation
and accommodation of every blind
candidate and one guide . ” Oloyede said , “In order to amplify the past efforts and also expand the frontiers
of equity and inclusiveness , we have
met with the executive committee of the
Association of Blind Persons in Nigeria at
the board ’ s headquarters in Abuja in
February 2017 and we also met with prospective blind candidates from a
school for the blind in Lagos about two
weeks ago at the University of Lagos . “ The outcome of these meetings
revealed that while the challenged group
fully appreciates the board ’ s recent
efforts at improving and upgrading the
facilities for the administration of the
board ’ s examination for the blind candidates . He added that out of the 13 commercial
banks and the Nigeria Postal Service that
signified interest in the sales of the
admission forms , only nine had paid for
the number of application documents
required in the first instance . He said , “As part of our approach to the
ideal of inclusiveness , we invited all
Central Bank of Nigeria approved
commercial banks to participate in the
sale of the 2017 Board ’ s application
documents . Sixteen commercial banks and NIPOST honoured and attended the interactive session where we explained
the reason and need for all of them to
partake in the exercise. Oloyede added in pursuit of the all-
inclusive approach of JAMB , JAMB had to patronise the NIPOST which could reach
remote towns and villages. “ Even when NIPOST could not raise the capital to purchase the pins for the
application documents , we had to open a
credit line for NIPOST to also vend pin and
pay later without reducing the
commission that the organisation is
entitled to per sale of document . ”