C’ River: Parents, students decry poor organisation of 2025 UTME

By Christian Njoku

 Some aggrieved parents and students in Cross River have decried what they described as poor organisation of the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) in the state.

The parents and students spoke to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in separate interviews in Calabar on Monday.

They lamented the pain they had to go through just to ensure that they and their wards part-took in the examination.

The 2025 UTME organised by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) was scheduled from Friday April 25, to Monday May 5 and is a Computer Based Test (CBT).

In his remarks, Mr Jonas Achi, said the whole process of UTME has been difficult for his family from the registration to writing the examination.

“During the registration at the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) Secondary School, many of us parents had to sleep over at the centre to ensure that our children were registered.

“The crowd was so much and to make matters worse, as we speak, many of the children were posted to Akwa Ibom from Cross River for their examination, others to other Local Governments like Obudu that can take up to eight hours of travelling from Calabar.

“Another challenge is fixing the examination by 6.30 a.m., how does JAMB expect the candidates to make it to the centre by such time to write their examination, it is highly insensitive,” he said.

 Mr Johnson Etim, a parent, said he registered his daughter at the University of Calabar Library registration centre after queuing for a week at FAAN Secondary School.

Etim added that the JAMB office in Calabar, could not register his ward after many days he tried to register his daughter.

”I can’t just understand why the process is now very difficult, for some days, we were told that there was no network for them to carry out the registrations.

“After going through the pains of registering my daughter, she was still posted to Akamkpa LGA which is a two to three hours journey from Calabar without minding that many of these children are just teenagers.

“My neighbour’s son was posted to Ikom which is a four to five hours journey from Calabar for the same examination, this is a place the boy had never been to before ,” he said.

He added that JAMB was stressing parents unnecessarily because many now had to leave Calabar as early as 5 a.m. with their wards to travel for the examination.

He said that some parents and their wards had to go a day before the exam and lodged in a hotel which was an extra cost.

The NAN Correspondent visited the JAMB office in Calabar and also spoke to some students who came to complain that they could not write the examination because they were given centres that were too far away.

Joseph Adagi, a 16-year-old candidate said he was posted to Ikot Ekpene in Akwa Ibom to write his exam in the early hours of the morning .

According to Adagi, he could not travel because he has no one in Akwa Ibom to stay with and cannot afford lodging in a hotel a day before the exam.

Other UTME candidates had with them, Doctor’s Reports, that say they are not well on the day they were scheduled to write their examination and asking for a rescheduling to a closer centre in Calabar.

Efforts  made by NAN to reach officials of JAMB in the state failed as the security man at the gate said no one was in the office.

The JAMB security man also told the NAN correspondent that all the officials were in the field supervising the ongoing examination. (NAN)(www.nannews.ng)