Stampede as JAMB Candidates Protest Against Hectic Registration Procedures

It is no longer news that this year's JAMB Examination is very stressful and time consuming unlike previous years. So many persons, especially prospective candidates of the examination are totally disillusioned with the outcome of the newly introduced registration pattern. 

This new system which was believed to make registration for the 2017 UTME very easy has unfortunately made the exercise cumbersome and time consuming. This has caused a hullabaloo among prospective candidates of the examination and has also pushed them out of their comfort and enduring zone to the streets where they could adequately make their grievances known.

You might not be aware that no fewer than 1,000 prospective candidates of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board on Wednesday took to the streets of Calabar to protest poor internet services affecting their registration processes for the forthcoming examination.

The candidates, who started their protest at about 7:am from the JAMB office along Marian Road, marched through Barracks Road and the Millennium Park before returning to the JAMB office.

The candidates were chanting solidarity songs and holding leaves in their hands while security personnel were seen following the protesters to ensure that there was no destruction of properties.

The candidates who blocked the Mary Slessor Roundabout, one lane on Marian Road just opposite the JAMB office and the Barracks Road by Marian, appealed that something be done about the rigorous nature of the registration exercise.

One of the candidates, Collins Nwanjei, lamented that he had not been able to get his Personal Identity Number since March 20 when JAMB commenced registration.

Another protester explained that the new process introduced by JAMB was too cumbersome and frustrating, adding that even the designated banks for the registration process are incompetent. He further advised JAMB not to continue with such process in subsequent years.

Read his words below:

To register, you first of all create a profile with JAMB with an e-mail address. Then JAMB will  send a confirmation to the e-mail address and you now click on the link of that confirmation and it will send you to JAMB portal and from there, you create a profile, which you will print out and do a remittal, which you will take to the bank to pay N700.

You make this payment alongside the N5, 500 at the bank for the JAMB form. So the total is N6, 200. You now bring that remittal back to JAMB office for registration. You can see how crazy the crowd is here. It is the same thing when you go to the bank. The process is too cumbersome and stressful. We beg them to make it easier for us.

For the bank to even sort out your pin is something else. I have been trying for weeks, yet I have not been able to complete the process.

We are paying cyber café charges, transportation up and down and sundry charges here and there, and most times, we do not even succeed. It is a big problem for us and something should be done about it as soon as possible.

I will advise that this kind of process should be discontinued in the next JAMB registration.