JAMB: Candidates lament changes in syllabus as UTME commences nationwide 

By CHIDIMMA C. OKEKE

Some candidates who sat for Literature-in-English in the ongoing 2021 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) have lamented the change of syllabus of work by the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB).

The UTME started on Saturday across various centres in the country and is expected to run in three sessions till July 3rd, 2021.

One of the candidates, Yunusa Gift, at the Digital Bridge Centre in Abuja, said the examination was hitch-free but the literature questions were based on the past scheme.

Gift, who was in tears, said: “They gave us questions from Otello and others which are not part of this year’s scheme.”

“We are meant to take Midnight Summer but it was Otello that was there and the prose was supposed to be Land and Job, Invisible Man, but they were not there because we started a new scheme that was given to us,” she said amidst tears.

Oluoma Chukwuebele Christian corroborated Gift’s complaints, saying that, “the novels they told us to read this year did not come out at all and the prose that had expired that they asked us not to read is what eventually came out.

“I was just guessing in the examination hall because I did not read them,” Oluoma said.

Another candidate, Blessing Joshua, who was almost in tears, said she observed the change of scheme during the Mock examination and called the attention of the invigilator and he told her that it was just for the mock examination.

“And today it is the same thing again. What we are asked to read did not come out,” she said.

However, a science student, who wrote in Future Gate modern School, Ado, Chibuihe Elendu, said the examination was hitch-free though they started late.

He said the crowd was too much and that as at 8:30am, screening was still ongoing even for candidates who were supposed to write at 7:00 am.

“I am supposed to write at 9.00 am and got to this centre in Ado, at about 7. 00 am and everywhere is crowded. We started ours at about 11:00 am” he said.

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB)’s coordinator at the Digital Bridge centre, Stella Uju, said the examination was hitch-free and they have two batches of 250 each.

“We had no power failure, computer issues nor candidate problems only that five candidates did not turn up for the examination, making it a total of 495 who wrote today,” she said.

She, however, noted that the examination commenced in the centre around 8: 15 am for the first session and it lasted for about two hours and the second batch commenced at past 10: 00 am.

A total of 1.338,687 million candidates registered for UTME, while over 75, 328 registered for Direct Entry.

When contacted, the JAMB Head of Protocol and Public Relations, Fabian Benjamin, said the candidates were given a syllabus unless they checked the wrong one.

He said JAMB’s syllabus is different from that of WAEC unless they have mistaken theirs for that of JAMB. (Daily Trust)