The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has announced a new date for the commencement of the 2023 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examinations (UTME).

JAMB disclosed this via a statement issued on Sunday, April 9, by its Head of Public Affairs and Protocol, Dr Fabian Benjamin.

Benjamin stated that the UTME which was earlier scheduled to commence on April 29, would now start on April 25, 2023.

He also said the board would hold its rescheduled mock-UTME on April 18, 2023.

The JAMB spokesperson said the adjustment in the date of the UTME was to accommodate some other major and critical national assignments.

“By so doing, the board hopes that no citizen will be denied the opportunity of exercising their civic responsibilities.

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“It should be noted that the board does not have the liberty of shifting forward its examination as other public examinations are billed to commence their exercises in the early part of May 2023.

“Yet another factor is the need to accommodate those institutions with stable academic calendar to resume as scheduled,” he stated.

On the mock-UTME, Benjamin said the exercise, which was earlier conducted on Thursday, March 30 in 725 centres across the country, ran into some technical hitches in some centres, denying some candidates the opportunity to sit for the examination.

The JAMB spokesman, however, said candidates who were present and screened for the examination but could not sit for it had been rescheduled to retake the mock examination on April 18, 2023.

“The board’s mock examination was designed for the purpose of testing its preparedness and that of its partners for the UTME as well as give prospective candidates the opportunity to have hands-on experience of the CBT test environment.

“It is, therefore, in order to give those candidates, who were unable to sit for the examination owing to no fault of theirs, the opportunity to take the examination that the mock examination had been rescheduled to hold on Tuesday, April 18,” he added.

Benjamin assured that JAMB would continue to partner with relevant agencies of government to ensure that its candidates got the best, adding that the board also solicited the understanding of Nigerians as it delivered on its critical mandate.

The Star