BY JOHN ONAH, Abuja-
The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) announced the postponement of the 2021 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) from June 19 to July 3, citing that the registration process has also been extended, with the exercise now to end on May 29.
The extension of the registration date was due to the difficulties encountered by the candidates in accessing their codes through the use of NIN.
However, days after the UTME exam date was shifted, several candidates have complained about their inability to generate the required profile code despite being debited at each attempt.
For instance, Henry Samuel in Karu Local government Area of Nasarawa state, disclosed that apart from the problems with the SMS system of trying to get the code, there are still issues related to the new USSD system introdued.
According to him, “I’ve been trying mine but it keeps on telling me ‘record not found and invalid NIN’ I don’t know what else to do”.
“I have tried repeatedly using every method available and directives from concerned individuals who thought of offering help having noticed my desperation, all to no avail”.
One Favour who spoke to NATIONAL ACCORD through telephone from Oju Local Government of Benue state, disclosed that after several attempt on SMS, she tried that of USSD and the response from that attempt has always been ‘service time out’.
A CBT centre operator in Nyanya, who does not want his name mentioned told our Correspondent that: “The problem has nothing to do with the operators of CBT centres but with the network. The candidate has to first of all obtain code before approaching us for registration, therefore what is our fault therein since we are not network operators”.
“Please, does that mean one can’t purchase e-pin through 55019 anymore because I tried again but I haven’t received a response,” another concerned candidate, complained.
“I have been trying the code closed to one month now and I could not receive my profile code still,” another candidate said.
It would be recalled that JAMB had encouraged Digital Service Providers to expand their facilities, including the provision of redundancy links.
It was also learnt that NIMC had at one time pledged to give priority attention to UTME/DE prospective candidates, and even after some candidates had succeeded in getting their NIN, the problem of access to code still persisted.
The Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) announced the creation of a USSD code to further ease the registration process for the 2021 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).
“The USSD system, which will complement the SMS method currently being used, would be available to candidates who are yet to send their National Identity Number (NIN) to the requested number”.
“We shall be deploying another method to get these profile codes and that is 550191*NIN number of candidate and #. This will complement the current SMS.”
Yet most of these candidates who are going through the process of using the USSD system could not scale through the hurdle.
Before the official announcement of the extension, candidates with challenges called on JAMB to postpone the examination and extend the registration deadline but as it is now, the postponement has no meaning to them following difficulties still experienced in trying to register.
Although the exam body has acknowledged that candidates are facing these challenges which led to the extension of the registration window, it would need to do more to make the process easier for candidates as these challenges could affect their overall performance in the exam.
Policies that give priority to students at NIN registration centres and the provision of alternative avenues to generate the all-important profile code are some of the things the exam body can immediately do to ease the process for candidates going forward.
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