We officially start at 8am – JAMB responds to Obi’s criticisms of early exam time

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We officially start at 8am – JAMB responds to Obi’s criticisms of early exam time

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, JAMB, has debunked criticisms by a former Presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, over the early resumption time for its Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination.

Waploaded recalls that Obi in a post on his official X handle on Sunday, publicly condemned reports of JAMB asking candidates, generally teenagers, to travel to examination centres as early as 6:30 am despite security concerns.

Obi described the situation as “reckless,” citing incidents of accidents and missing candidates and blamed it on what he called Nigeia’s poor infrastructure in education.

But in a reaction, JAMB clarified that while candidates are expected to arrive by 6:30 am for verification and clearance, the examinations officially begin at 8:00 am.

According to the exam body, the early arrival was needed to prevent late-coming, which could disorganized the exercise.

“Your Excellency, I must assert that our examination is scheduled to commence at 8:00am, not 6:00 am,” JAMB wrote on X.

“While verification and other clearance processes begins at 6:30am, it is imperative that candidates are afforded adequate time to settle in before the exam begins.

“Given the tendencies often observed among Nigerians to arrive late when a start time is set without space for eventuality, this structured timeline is essential to ensure that all candidates are properly prepared and can perform to the best of their abilities.”