The Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, Ishaq Oloyede, has disclosed that 1.7 million candidates are expected to write the 2017 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).

According to Ceoafrica, Mr Oloyede made the disclosure at the Information and Communication Technology Retreat on Tuesday in Abeokuta, Ogun.

At the retreat which was well attended by civil society groups, students and other officials in the education sector, the registrar said the board was also planning to increase its Computer Based Testing (CBT) Centres in order to make the examination exercise seamless.

Although, 1,561,443 candidates sat for the UTME in 2016, Oloyede said “we are expecting 1.7 million candidates to sit for JAMB this year and we want to make sure we satisfy them within a week or thereabout’’, he said.

He said he cannot guarantee a hitch-free examination, but that the innovations being put in place “will send some illegal operators, who are defrauding candidates in the past, out of business”, adding that the board would not be deterred in its mission to serve its candidates better this year.

According to him, “Frankly, I cannot promise a hitch-free examination because we are testing certain things, we are changing certain things, we want to question the status quo and we expect a fight back by interests that will be trampled upon”.

He explained that the board would be as sincere as possible and that the major objective of the retreat was for stakeholders to critique the board’s processes, “because we will not want to continue in the wrong direction’’.

Ishaq Oloyede said the board was planning to create new ICT facilities, and that prospective candidates, scholars, institutions and civil society groups were brought together to critique it.

“This is to enable us harvest good ideas that can improve what we are doing”, he added.

He said the CBT had come to stay, adding that four African countries had indicated interest to understudy the process in Nigeria, and that JAMB would soon begin the sale of forms for the 2017 UTME, adding that the board was also working on the possibility of conducting a mock examination.