- JAMB disciplined accredited officials who demanded a hijab-wearing candidate to remove her head covering during the examination
- Investigations revealed the incident’s inconsistency with JAMB guidelines; the candidate was allowed entry after undergoing necessary checks with her hijab
The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has taken disciplinary action against some of its accredited officials for requiring a hijab-wearing candidate to remove her head covering during Saturday’s Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination at an examination centre in Lagos.
The officials insisted that the candidate remove her hijab before being granted access to the examination hall.
Following an investigation, JAMB found that the incident, like similar ones in the past, did not align with its examination guidelines. It was attributed to the misplaced priorities of some accredited partners or officials who claimed ignorance of the Board’s accreditation guidelines.
JAMB clarified that its guidelines stipulate that all candidates are to be screened, with female officials tasked with screening female candidates before they are allowed entry into the examination hall. A senior JAMB official at the centre promptly addressed the situation, and the candidate in question was permitted entry after undergoing the necessary checks with her hijab.
In response to the incident, JAMB’s Public Communication Advisor, Dr. Fabian Benjamin, stated in Abuja on Sunday that the guilty officials have been sanctioned as a deterrent to others, emphasizing that ignorance of the law is not an excuse.
Furthermore, Benjamin reiterated that JAMB has no policy prohibiting candidates from wearing religious attire specific to their faith.
He also mentioned that approximately 1.2 million candidates would have completed the examination by Monday, April 22.