1.5 million candidates to write UTME Saturday

ALL is now set for the conduct of the 2012 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination on Saturday as candidates sitting for the examination hit a record of 1.5 million.In order to ensure adequate security for a hitch-free conduct of the examination, expected to hold simultaneously in 3,001 centres across the 375 examination towns nationwide, soldiers, policemen, men and officials of the State Security Service and Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) would be deployed, especially in the volatile states of Borno, Kano and Jigawa states.Registrar and Chief Executive of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Professor 'Dibu Ojerinde, while briefing newsmen in Abuja on the preparedness of the Board for a conduct of a smooth and hitch-free exercise, barred candidates from bringing mobile phones and other communication gadgets to examination venues. Professor Ojerinde allayed the fear being expressed in some quarters about the conduct of the examinations in some volatile states of the North susceptible to Boko Haram attacks, saying adequate security arrangements had been put in place.He revealed that the examination would also hold simultaneously in six foreign countries-Ghana, Cameroon, Benin, London, Saudi Arabia and South Africa.Ojerinde said there was a remarkable increase in the number of registered candidates in all the foreign centres, which he said underscored the acceptability of Nigeria's Tertiary Educational System around the world.The JAMB registrar said the 1.5 million candidates that registered for the examination in 2012, was the highest since the existence of JAMB.He said: 'A total of 1,503,931 candidates registered for the 2012 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), making it the highest number of registered candidates so far since the existence of JAMB.'You will recall that in the 2011 UTME, a total of 1,493,603 candidates were registered while in 2010, we had a total of 1,375,642 candidates. The figure in this year's 2012 UTME is only a marginal increase of 10,338 candidates as against an increase of 117,961, the 2011 UTME had over the maiden edition 2010 UTME,' he said.
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