The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has taken action against officials involved in an incident where a hijab-wearing candidate was asked to remove her headscarf during the accreditation process for the ongoing Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME). The incident, which occurred at the Bafuto Institute in Lagos, was reported by Muslim News and other platforms.
Dr. Fabian Benjamin, JAMB’s Public Communication Advisor, expressed the Board’s regret over the incident, stating that it was not in line with JAMB’s guidelines for candidate accreditation. He clarified that the incident was not a result of JAMB’s examination guidelines but rather the misplaced priority of some accredited partners or officials who claimed ignorance of the accreditation guidelines.
The matter was promptly resolved by a senior official of the Board at the examination centre, and the candidate was admitted after the necessary checks with her hijab. However, the officials involved have been sanctioned as a deterrent to others who may engage in similar actions in the future.
JAMB emphasized that it does not have a policy prohibiting applicants from wearing religious gear specific to their beliefs and reiterated its commitment to investigating such incidents thoroughly to prevent recurrence.
In other news, JAMB reported that the 2024 UTME, which began on April 19th, proceeded smoothly, with over 1.2 million candidates successfully taking the exam by April 22nd, 2024.
