Barely 19 days to the end of registration for the 2017 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), some prospective candidates are calling for an extension due to hitches being experienced in the exercise.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the candidates and their parents cited poor response of the server at the designated banks as a big challenge in obtaining the e-PIN.
They also described the entire registration process as frustrating and stressful.
Christopher Odugbo, one of the candidates, appealed to the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), organisers of the examination, to further review the new process.
Odugbo told NAN on Friday at one of the registration centres in Ikeja, Lagos that many of the prospective candidates were not too familiar with the process.
He noted that the centres were not enough, thus creating pressure on the available ones.
“I think JAMB should urgently come to our rescue.
“The centres are not many around here, many of the candidates, who might live very far away from some of these centres face the risk of not being able to register before the closing date.
“The queue is too long such that if one does not arrive at the centres early enough, one may keep trying for as much as one-week.
“Therefore, I think it will be good if JAMB can consider extending the registration time because many candidates are still struggling to even acquire the pins from the banks,’’ Odugbo told NAN.
Joseph Nnoruom, another candidate, lamented the rush and endless queue in buying the e-PIN, especially in the Alimosho Local Government Area of Lagos State.
According to Nnoruom, the one month registration period set by the board may not be feasible for some candidates, considering the challenges they are facing.
He said that long queues were the order of the day at the banks as well as the Bafuto Registration Centre at Egbe, near Ikotun.
“We sometimes leave home as early 3.00 a.m. to ensure we succeed in obtaining the e-PIN, but we still meet alarming crowd at the bank,’’ he said.
However, one of the officials at a registration centre said that the process had been smooth.
She added that she never anticipated that the process would turn out the way it was going.
The official, who pleaded anonymity, said that so far, there had not been any challenges in the registration process at the centre.
“At first, when we were going for the briefing for the registration, I was actually sceptical of the whole thing as I was already picking holes.
“Initially, I was sceptical about the success of the exercise, when we went for briefing on the registration procedure.
“But to my surprise, the registration has been going seamlessly.
“We registered 182 candidates on the first day, 132 candidates the second day and it continues like that,’’ the official said.
She said that where the candidates could actually be having challenges was on e-PIN acquisition.
The Registrar of the Board, Prof. Is-shaq Oloyede, told NAN on telephone that the board encouraged banks and NIPOST to deploy more tellers to ease the registration procedure.
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