JAMB says it will start collecting the N700 registration fee for the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) from 2022 to end CBT centres’ extortion.

In its weekly bullet issued in Abuja on Monday, it disclosed that it would collect the N700 fee at the point of registration.

“JAMB will, as from the 2022 UTME exercise, be collecting the approved N700 registration fee on behalf of the various Computer-Based Test (CBT) centres along with its UTME registration fees,” it stated. “The board will then remit whatever is due to each registration centre to its bank account weekly or any timeframe acceptable to the centre owners.”

It explained that the measure “was borne out of a painstaking review of the entire UTME registration process,” which revealed “unethical and unacceptable practices” by many CBT centres.

“They indulge in massive extortion of candidates during the exercise,” JAMB added.

The exam body also stated that it had been compelled to make the UTME registration process cashless to stop extortion. It added that the new process would not in any way increase the cost of UTME registration.

“It is only the process of payment that has changed, not the cost. With the new policy, candidates simply walk into any registration centre and register without paying any fee,” JAMB further stated. “The fee hitherto payable to the centre would have been paid along with the cost of obtaining the e-PINS.”

Meanwhile, the board said it had decided to establish the ‘A/Level Task Team’ and ‘A/Level Qualification and Verification Databank’ (ALQVD).

The initiatives were to serve as monitoring bodies and repositories respectively for verified A/Level qualifications.

It said the measure and others underway would ensure preserve gains recorded in the education sector.

“This follows revelations from a recent professional operation undertaken by the ICPC in conjunction with the Federal Ministry of Education. These revelations are contained in a recent statement by the ICPC about irregularities in the Joint Universities Preliminary Examinations Board (JUPEB),” it stressed. “Concerns were expressed by major stakeholders about the faking of the Interim Joint Matriculation Board (IJMB) examination results.”

It revealed that “recently, one tertiary institution had cause to verify the IJMBE results of more than 146 candidates admitted with IJMB certificates and found only six genuine results.”

JAMB also stated that it had introduced Computer Studies and Physical Health Education to the existing 23 UTME subjects to make them 25, beginning from the 2022 UTME.

(NAN)