Some stakeholders in the education sector called on the National Identity Management Commission on Thursday to organise a seamless National Identity Number (NIN) registration process for their students
The stakeholders, who gave the advice in separate interviews, urged NIMC to introduce a simple and decentralised NIN registration process where students would obtain their NIN without any difficulty.
NIN is mandatory for students sitting exams involving the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board and West African Examinations Council.
Ebunoluwa Sewuese, the principal of Rahinna Model School, Jikwoyi, Abuja, said the NIN process should come with ease for prospective students writing the JAMB and O’ level exams across the country.
Ms Sewuese said if the process of obtaining the NIN were streamlined, secondary school students would be able to pursue other exam registrations with ease.
Another school administrator, Majagi Garba from Royal High School, New Karu in Nasarawa, said obtaining NIN for secondary school students had further complicated the rigorous process of registering them for O’ level exams.
He said the need to address the untold hardship caused by the introduction of NIN as a compulsory requirement for JAMB registration cannot be overemphasised.
A parent, Isah Ibrahim of Asokoro, FCT, attributed network irregularities to the process of obtaining NIN.
Ubah Sani, another parent, said if the process of obtaining the NIN were tedious for most secondary school students, it would hinder their admission into higher tertiary institutions.
He said that although getting NIN for students was a good idea, the cumbersome process of obtaining it was most often worrisome.
A parent, Sarah Jones, alleged that the NIMC made things difficult for millions of candidates preparing for the forthcoming exams.
Ima Obong, a schoolteacher in Karu, Abuja, also expressed concern over the inability of her students to generate profile codes due to issues around NIN linkage.
“Out of 60 students, only 10 have been able to register for NIN, while others are still struggling and out of this number, only four have successfully registered for UTME,” said Ms Obong.
She noted that the situation remained the same in other schools within the metropolis, as students could not get their profile codes because of similar problems.
A UTME candidate, Paul Biya, expressed fears of missing out on his JAMB lessons and WAEC tutorials just because of the long hours he spent at the Karu centre to obtain his NIN.
Another parent, Isa Keffi, said his ward may not be able to write the exam if she does not get the NIN.
Nkechi Isaac, who was spotted at an NIN centre in Nyanyan, Abuja, alleged that she had paid for NIN registration because she could not withstand the long queue and slow process.
Martha Musa, who cited poor infrastructure and network as some of the problems, suggested that appropriate facilities should be put in place to drive digital service delivery.
She emphasised the need to address the poor pace of registration at the various NIN centres, poor implementation and lack of foresight by the exam body.
Similarly, the proprietor of Prime Model College, Abaji, Kemi Taiwo, wondered how the exam body expects candidates to survive the stress of NIN enrolment coupled with reading.
Gado Isaac, a UTME candidate in Nasarawa State, said he travelled to Abuja for registration due to poor infrastructure and network service in his community.
