To solve the challenges of multiple registration, the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has said starting from 2020, candidates will register for the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) with their National Identity Number (NIM).

Head of Media of the board, Dr Fabian Benjamin, disclosed this at a one-day capacity building workshop organised by the National Examination Council (NECO) for education correspondents in Keffi, Niger state on Friday.

Benjamin, who spoke on the topic: “Understanding Reporting in the 21st Century,” said the development would be facilitated through partnership with the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC).

According to him, experience has shown that malpractice in the conduct of public examination, especially the UTME, actually begins with the registration exercise.

“Four days ago, we cancelled results of four candidates because of examination malpractices we discovered after the examination.

“The board is on top of the situation as it has the determination and technology in place to forestall attempts at compromising the registration process.

“An intrinsic part of the strategies adopted by the board is ensuring that its registration period is kept very short.”

He said that the registration of candidates would now take 30 days instead of a longer period to contain the chances of fraudsters’ strategies to circumvent the process.

Benjamin also appealed to parents to desist from encouraging their children to commit examination malpractices.

On biometric challenges, he said the board had planned to ensure that by 2020 the issues of biometric problems in the course of registration would be over.

“In 2018, we have about 24,490 biometric challenges but we have been able to bring this down to 22 in 2019; but if we are able to stand on our ground by 2020, we will not have any biometric challenges,” he said.

He added that no Computer Based Test (CBT) centre would be used for the conduct of its examinations except those centre whose administrators were the owners of the CBT centres.

Speaking on the challenges of impersonations in examination, Benjamin said multiple registrations, if not checked, was an easy way to impersonate a candidate.

He noted that the board, in conforming with international best practices, would take care of people with special needs through the ICT capacity building and empowerment programme.

NAN