In the midst of the seven-month-old ASUU strike, JAMB has released new criteria for the 2023 UTME.

In preparation for the 2023 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination, the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has released new rules for applicants and other stakeholders (UTME).

The board announced the new rules in its weekly bulletin, which was released on Monday, September 26, 2022.

The Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) examinations will henceforth be administered using laptops with at least 2 gigabytes (2GB) of RAM in all Computer-Based Test (CBT) centers, according to the board’s revised rules.

Additionally, it prohibits CBT centers from working with internet cafes or instructional facilities, stating that “any breach of the order, whether in part or whole, will lead to the cancellation of the license of the erring CBT center.”

Additionally, JAMB said that starting in 2023, it will think about splitting UTME registration from Direct Entry (DE).

No new Computer-Based Test (CBT) center will be authorized without fulfilling the new conditions, according to JAMB. To this aim, zero thin clients or Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) would no longer be permitted in new CBT centers, which are required to employ laptop computer systems as clients.

“It became imperative for the board to change its operations in order to achieve significant improvements on different problems arising from the registration process, biometric difficulties, and other operational processes,” the statement reads.

In order to verify that the CBT centers are prepared, JAMB said that it will implement three required autobot tests: pre-accreditation, during Mock-UTME, and the dummy examination (which is conducted a day before the UTME).

It said that the necessity to avoid IP address duplication and misuse was “another important factor in the decision.”

The JAMB Registrar, Ishaq Oloyede, also announced that all approved CBT center registration officials will have their biometrics taken before to the test.

Candidates must print their registration form using at least two fingers, according to JAMB. It said that either of the two fingers will be utilized for biometric verification before a person entered the exam room on the test day.

Candidates with problematic fingerprints would be designated as “Exemption Candidates” at the registration desk, and their registration slips would be color-coded to distinguish them from other applicants.

According to JAMB, such applicants would take their test in Abuja on the last day of the national exam schedule, and their results would not be made public until after they had through the appropriate review.

The development occurs in the midst of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) strike, which has been in effect for more than seven months and has prevented academic activities at public universities from proceeding.

Remember that JAMB oversees admissions to all Nigerian institutions, including public and private, and is obliged to accredit top secondary pupils for university entrance via a test.

While JAMB’s schedule is ideal for many private colleges, it has caused system instability for public universities as they try to catch up with the number of applicants who are eligible to enroll. The majority of their struggles are a consequence of the time missed during the ASUU strike.

The public universities in Nigeria are reportedly in danger of missing a semester due to the continuing strike.

According to a professor at the University of Lagos (UNILAG), most institutions have two sets of pupils ready to start the new academic year.

“Those accepted in 2021 were scheduled to continue following the second-semester exams in the early months of this year, but the strike prevented them from doing so. Now, while awaiting the admissions procedures, another group of students took the UTME this year.

“You know, colleges have been working really hard to recover from the COVID-19 shutdown, which resulted in the closure of all schools, and now we have this protracted ASUU strike. I really have no idea how this would be handled, the instructor, who begged for anonymity, added.

The union is calling for the release of funding for university revitalization, the negotiation of the 2009 FGN/ASUU agreement, the release of earned allowances for university lecturers, and the implementation of the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS).

The majority of the union’s demands, such as the release of N50 billion for the payment of earned allowances for academic and non-academic staff at universities, were allegedly addressed by the government. However, the government claimed that it would not pay the union any arrears for the strike period.

ASUU has also emphasized that the strike won’t end until the unpaid debt is resolved.