The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has defended its scheduling practices after former Labour Party presidential candidate, Peter Obi, criticised the early resumption time for the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).
Obi, in a post on X (formerly Twitter) on Sunday, condemned reports that candidates, many of them teenagers, were required to arrive at examination centres as early as 6:30 am despite prevailing security challenges across the country.
He described the practice as “reckless,” citing instances of road accidents and cases of missing candidates linked to the early start times.
Obi attributed the situation to what he termed Nigeria’s chronic underinvestment in the education sector, arguing that exposing vulnerable students to such risks reflected deeper systemic failures.
“Setting exams for teenagers at such dangerous hours endangers lives and highlights the structural decay in our education system,” Obi said.
In response, JAMB defended its operational procedures, explaining that the early start times are necessary to accommodate the large number of candidates sitting for the exam nationwide.
