Between Friday, 19 and 29 April, more than 1.9 million candidates took the computer-based examination to rank candidates seeking admission into Nigerian tertiary institutions.
Candidates who sat the 2024 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) can now check their results.
The Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculations Board (JAMB), Is-haq Oloyede, a professor, disclosed this at a press briefing in Abuja on Monday.
Between Friday, 19 and 29 April, more than 1.9 million candidates took the computer-based examination to rank candidates seeking admission into Nigerian tertiary institutions.
Mr Oloyede, however, said the examination body had withheld the results of 64,624 candidates for possible infractions. He said the board was investigating the withheld results.
Mr Oloyede, according to a copy of his speech obtained by PREMIUM TIMES, said: "Out of a total of 1,989,668 registered candidates, 80,810 were absent. A total of 1,904,189 sat the UTME within the six days of the examination...".
He said the results of total of 1,842,464 candidates have been released.
Pass Rate
The registrar further noted that 8,401, representing 0.5 per cent of candidates, scored 300 and above in the examination. The maximum score obtainable in the UTME is 400.
He said 77,070, representing 4.2 per cent, scored 250 and above and that 439,974, representing 24 per cent, scored 200 and above.
He added that 1,402,490, representing 76 per cent of candidates, scored below 200.
Withheld results, infractions
The JAMB registrar explained that 78 of the withheld results are under investigation for alleged examination misconduct, 4,594 for "procedural investigation of candidates, 2,896 "under investigation on verification," and 57,056 for centre-based investigations.
For the centre-based investigation, 18 centres are involved, with the breakdown presented as Edo 1, Akwa Ibom, Delta 2 and Kwara 1.
Mr Oloyede, however, noted that there's a downward trend in the cases of examination infractions noticed in the UTME since the introduction of computer-based tests almost ten years ago.
He said the board only had 78 cases of examination misconduct in the just-concluded UTME. "Even these cases are largely in terms of impersonation and smuggling of devices into the examination hall," he said.
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He added that JAMB is determined to sustain the tempo through the adoption and automation of all its processes, starting from registration and examination to admission.
"The Board witnessed a near-zero infraction in the 2024 UTME except for a few cases, representing a tiny fraction of what was reported last year. This is encouraging, and the Board is poised to consolidate on the successes recorded," he said.
Hitches
Mr Oloyede added that only 25 of 9,156 examination sessions experienced hiccups, which disrupted 150 sessions in 95 of the 774 centres.
"The affected sessions were promptly rescheduled. Only one centre, Makama School of Technology, Old Motor Park, Along FCCE (T) Road, Bichi, Kano State, was delisted for substandard performance," he added.
Gender, PWDs data
The JAMB registrar added that this year's registration had more female candidates for the first time in three years.
According to the data he provided, 1,007,275 (50.6 per cent) female candidates registered for the examinations compared to 982,393 (49.4 per cent) male candidates.
Last year, 49.7 per cent of candidates were female. In 2022, they represented 48.4 per cent of the total candidates.
Out of the total registration, 3,164 were persons with disabilities (PWDs), Mr Oloyede added.
Qosim Suleiman is a reporter at Premium Times in partnership with Report for the World, which matches local newsrooms with talented emerging journalists to report on under-covered issues around the globe
