The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, on Monday, announced new examination dates for the 2022 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination.

The board made this known in its weekly bulletin made available to journalists by the Director of Public Relations and Protocols, Dr Fabian Benjamin.

The board explained that the decision to announce a new examination date was to accommodate some exigencies.

The bulletin read in part, “In a bid to accommodate some exigencies, which ultimate goals are to ensure maximal benefits to potential candidates, the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board has made adjustments to its examination timelines. Given the breakdown of the adjusted timelines, the board disclosed that the 2022 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination will be held from Friday, May 6 to Monday, May 16, 2022.

READ ALSO Imo state is owing me N8bn security votes – Okorocha says as he counters corruption claims 

“While the mock UTME exercise earlier scheduled for April 2, 2022 will now be held on April 16, 2022, for candidates who registered early and indicated their willingness to sit the mock UTME.

“The date for the commencement of the sale of the 2022 UTME/DE application document, which was slated to start from February 12 to March 19, 2022, remains as stated earlier.

“This review, as approved by management, is to ensure that the candidates, who will be sitting the examination and others are not denied the opportunity to express themselves in other public examinations without forfeiting any examination.”

The board also added that candidates sitting the UTME could now pick Computer Studies or Physical and Health Education as part of the four required subjects, if they so desired or as dictated by their programme preferences.

The board said the addition of the two subjects to the existing 23 subjects would commence from the 2022 UTME.

According to the board, the move is to enhance the career prospects of students transiting to tertiary institutions.

With the addition, there are now 25 UTME subjects to be written by candidates.

Others are Agricultural Science, Arabic, Art, Biology, Chemistry, Christian Religious Studies, Commerce, Economics, French, Geography, Government, Hausa, History and Home Economics.

Benjamin, in an interview with our correspondent, explained that the decision of the board to postpone the examination came after a meeting with other examination bodies.

He said, “We sat down with other examination bodies to arrive at the new timetable. The timetable clashed, so one or two examination bodies had to shift their examinations to accommodate others and that is what we have done.

“For example, you see the UTME clashing with WASSCE; that was why we shifted the exam. Our site cannot be hacked. We are not saying we are super, but we have things put in place.”