Ahead of the Unified Tertiary Matriculations Examination (UTME), the Joint Admission and Matriculations Board (JAMB) said the board had introduced innovations its successful conduct.

The registrar, Ishaq Oloyede, made this known in Abuja on Monday at a meeting on strategic planning and preparations for the supervision and evaluation of the examination.

He said ”a robust item bank with appropriate safeguards had been developed by moving toward open examination with one million questions per subject.”

He said a separate indicator had also been created for the deaf (mute) to differentiate them for special attention at the examination centre.

“Efforts are on to provide an option of special centres or mainstreaming for the blind.

“We now have a live report on centres that registered any candidate, the time any candidate was registered, who registered them, the computer system used, the location of registration.

Mr Oloyede also warned candidates to ensure their biometrics were taken and verified.

He urged candidates to comply with the rules of engagement governing the registration and examination.

According to him, biometric verification will be the only mode for the admittance of candidates into the examination centres.

He said the increasing threat of identity fraud during the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) before the advent of BVM (Bank Verification Number) necessitated its introduction.

“Any candidate that cannot be verified by the Biometric Verification Mode (BVM) must not be allowed to take the examination under any guise.”

According to him, candidates whose fingerprints could be captured during registration from centres across the country ”were brought to JAMB headquarters and were manually registered appropriately”.

“In other words, exemption mode is not allowed for any candidate. Therefore, no biometric verification, no examination,” Mr Oloyede warned.

The registrar said the use of emails/passwords would not be allowed by cybercafe operators as it had now been classified as an offence for the cybercafe to ask for passwords before rendering services.

Prohibited Items

Mr Oloyede said the board held an international roundtable on cheating devices in December 2017.

He said, as a result, Automated Teller Machines (ATM) were added to the list of prohibited items during examinations.

He said other items prohibited are: wristwatches, recorders, earpieces, mobile phones, Bluetooth devices, smart lenses, erasers, smart buttons and spy reading glasses, among others.

He said the board had approved the use of 708 Computer Based Test (CBT) centres across the country.

He also said the names of impersonators in the last ten years would soon be published to serve as a deterrent to others.

He said about 1.99 million candidates had registered for the 2019 UTME.