Students and parents in Jos have raised serious concerns about the safety of candidates posted to examination centres in some of the most volatile communities in Plateau State ahead of the 2026 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination, warning that JAMB's posting strategy has placed many candidates at risk by assigning them to areas that have been repeatedly struck by deadly attacks in recent months.
The UTME is scheduled to hold between April 25 and May 5, 2026, and candidates are required to report to their assigned centres as early as 6:30 a.m. However, the alarm raised by students and their families centres on postings to communities in Jos North, Bokkos, Barkin Ladi, Bassa, Riyom, Mangu and Jos South, all of which have witnessed violent attacks that have claimed lives and displaced residents in the period leading up to the examination.
One of the candidates, Afodia Joseph, expressed particular distress over being posted to Bokkos, describing the area as volatile given the recent incidents there and questioning how her safety could possibly be guaranteed while travelling to and sitting an examination in such a community. Another candidate, John Lazarus, said being posted to a centre in the Katako area had left him deeply anxious, with no clear assurance of the level of security protection that would be available to candidates on examination day.
Parents have been equally alarmed. Mrs Roseline Moses, who spoke with our correspondent in Jos, stressed that the safety of candidates must be the overriding consideration, especially for those assigned to communities with well-documented security challenges, and called on relevant authorities to take proactive steps before the examinations commence.
The Chairman of the National Association of Proprietors of Private Schools in the Jos North Local Government Area chapter, Alhaji Abdullahi Salihu Malami, went further, formally calling on JAMB to urgently review its candidate posting strategy before the examinations begin. Malami said the complaints he had received from parents and stakeholders, including faith-based groups, painted a troubling picture of candidates being sent to distant and security-sensitive locations without any apparent consideration for the prevailing security and logistical realities on the ground.
He warned that the current posting arrangement had already increased anxiety among parents, imposed additional and unnecessary financial and transportation burdens on families, and exposed candidates to potential dangers that could result in lateness, absenteeism and poor examination performance. He urged JAMB to ensure that candidates were assigned only to safe and accessible centres, and called for greater engagement with local stakeholders who had direct knowledge of conditions on the ground in the affected communities.
Efforts to reach JAMB officials for a response were not successful at the time of filing this report.
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