The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board has said 260,000 candidates sat for the Mock-Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination in 793 computer-based test centres across the country.

JAMB Registrar, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, disclosed this on Thursday after monitoring the exercise in some of the centres in Abuja.

Mr Oloyede, who expressed delight at the seamless conduct of the exercise nationwide, said the examination was to test the preparedness for the main UTME, which would commence on April 19, 2024.

He said that the Board had successfully conducted recruitment examinations for the Nigerian Police on Wednesday, adding that the only few incidents recorded in the mock UTME in about four centres would be resolved.

“So far, we are doing mock after mock, just yesterday we conducted recruitment for the Police Service Commission throughout the country, that was a mock before today’s mock.

“That mock was in 411 centres across the country, and today we are conducting our own mock in 793 centres across the country. So far, we have about three or four places where they have one issue or the other, but we are trying to get over that.

“So, it is a good one, even in those three where there are issues, we will have a way of accommodating them even if they go down completely. But everything is going on well and the reports we have are that we are very okay,” he said.

The registrar also said that 1.98 million candidates registered for the main 2024 UTME out of which over 260,000 took part in the mock exam.

He said, “Over 260,000 candidates are sitting for the (mock) exam but in the real exam, we have 1.98 million, because we don’t want to turn our mock to another exam, that is why we did not allow more than that number to register for the mock exam, which is just to test the system.”

Asked about the readiness for the main UTME, Mr Oloyede said JAMB was fully prepared for the conduct of the examination, saying that new mechanisms would also be deployed to further fortify the exam system.

“We are adequately ready for the exam. Today is a very special day for us. We know we are doing some internal revolution this year which we were apprehensive of.  We can now say we have arrived, what we said to ourselves about six, seven years ago, we have been able to achieve it today,” he said.

Mr Oloyede said that the results of the mock UTME would either be released on Thursday or on Friday.

Earlier, the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) consultant at JAMB, Damilola Bamiro, said the examination body was also fully in touch with all the centres taking part in the examination through the JAMB’s Situation Room.

Mr Bamiro said the Situation Room allowed for real time interaction between the centres and JAMB to speedily resolve any issue during the exam.

The 2024 UTME would commence from April 19 to 29. 

(NAN)