The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has announced that it has sanctioned some of its accredited officials for demanding {that a} hijab-wearing candidate at Saturday’s Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination should remove her hijab.
It was alleged that some JAMB officials at an examination center in Lagos, insisted that the candidate removed her hijab before being allowed in.
Announcing the sanction, the examination body mentioned in a statement;
“The Board deeply regrets the incident and, on an investigation, discovered, that this specific incident, or others in the past, is not linked to any of its examination guidelines.
“It was rather a product of the misplaced precedence of some of the accredited partners or officials who claimed ignorance of the Board’s pointers on accreditation.
“The rules be certain that all candidates are screened, permitting solely feminine officers to display female candidates before permitting them to gain entrance into the hall.
“The state of affairs was immediately addressed by a senior official of the Board on the centre and the candidate in question was allowed in after the same old checks along with her hijab.
“Since ignorance of the law is not an excuse, the officers have been sanctioned to function a deterrent to others.’’
JAMB’s Public Communication Advisor, Dr Fabian Benjamin additionally mentioned the officials acted in ignorance as JAMB had no policy barring candidates from wearing the religious paraphernalia peculiar to their faith.
