JAMB should suspend implementing National I.D Card for 2020 UTME – Parents advised 

Parents and guardians in the country have advised the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) to suspend for now the implementation of making the National Identification Card Number (NIN) mandatory for prospective candidates for this year’s Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).

They said enforcing the policy by JAMB from this year’s March when the next exam would be conducted would deny so many qualified candidates not only from registering and sitting for the exam, but also from gaining admission for further studies.

Speaking on their behalf in an exclusive chat with our correspondent, the 2nd Deputy National President of Parent-Teacher Association of Nigeria (PTAN), Chief Deolu Ogunbanjo, said to implement the policy at this time and especially when the registration for the exam would commence few days away would be ill-conceived

According to him, it is still a very difficult task for an ordinary citizen to get the National Identity Card from the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), the agency that is responsible for issuance notwithstanding the length of years the enrollment had commenced.

He explained that it is terrible most times at NIM offices and their designated registration points across the country for applicants to register and do biometrics capturing much less collection of slips and the subsequent classic cards.

“To scale through the first to the second phase by applicants to collect their slips before classic cards usually take about six months. And I think JAMB ought to have known this,” he pointed out

Ogunbanjo, who is also PTAN’s South-west coordinator, said that was why parents are appealing to the registrar of JAMB, Professor Is-haq Oloyede to suspend making the policy mandatory for UTME candidates at this time, noting that doing so can never be to the interest of the public.

He however, suggested to JAMB to shift the implementation of the policy to maybe 2021 when many more Nigerians especially students according to him would have expected to have their national identity numbers.