JAMB blacklists centres known for ‘mercenary candidates

Candidates writing computer-based UTME at JAMB’s CBT Center in Bwari, Abuja

The Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) recently conducted the computer-based Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) in 521 centres across the country as well as few others abroad.  A total of 1, 592,444 candidates applied for the exams, slightly above those in 2015 but 1,546,633 (97.12%) successfully sat for the exams while 23,577 (1.48%) were declared absent by the Board.
The Computer-Based Test (CBT) which replaced Paper-Based Test a few years ago appears to be the most effective way of measuring real skills of candidates and isn’t time consuming as candidates are given statement of result shortly after.

With the introduction of the CBT, cheating and impersonation were reduced tremendously yet candidates who do not know how to use computer programmes were said to have encountered minor problems during the exams. There were other challenges ranging from power cut, poor ventilation to poor connectivity.
JAMB Registrar Professor Dibu Ojerinde said most of the operators of the exam centres misinformed the Board about their facility. He said the Board inspected the centres three times separately before the exams but during the exams there were discrepancies in working materials. He said an exam centre in Lagos presented about 250 computers and 100KVA generator to inspectors but only 140 computers and 20KVA generator were found at the centre on exam day.
He said “Unfortunately, some of the centre operators were not sincere in providing us with the true position of their facility. They hired equipment and other necessary apparatus and on the examination day, they were found wanting. This led to the relocation of candidates to more suitable centres.”
He said candidates must not be computer literate to take the exams, adding that about 220 blind candidates took the exams and “one of them got 280 marks, one of the highest in the country.”
About 59,000 candidates were relocated to other centres according to the Board and as a result some missed the tests. The Board later at a media conference in Bwari, Abuja, resolved to set new exams for those who missed the exams at a later date.
The Board said candidates had to be moved from a centre in Uromi to Auchi in Edo State due to the invasion of mercenaries. One of the JAMB officials (name withheld) at the centre told journalist at the Board’s headquarters in Bwari that some exams racketeers brought dozens of mercenary candidates to take the exams on behalf of all the candidates in the centre after collecting at least N25, 000 from each candidate.  The racketeers told the official that in previous years, mercenaries were brought to write exams for candidates. The racketeers pledged to pay the official a bribe of N1.5 million and later raised it to N6m. The official refused to cooperate with them and informed her superiors in Abuja who ordered the transfer of the candidates to a centre in Auchi where they wrote the exams under the watch of armed soldiers.
Again, another invigilator attached to a Lagos centre said mercenaries were brought in 12 buses to write exams for candidates there but officials refused to cooperate with them and the centre was moved to Moro in Osun State.  
Professor Ojerinde said thousands of candidates had to be relocated to other centres for safety reasons due to invasion of armed mercenaries. “Conducting public exams in this country is becoming a war,” he said.
The Board said exam centres found to be popular with mercenary candidates were blacklisted.
The Board also came under fire over her grading policy because thousands of candidates couldn’t receive the exact results of the exams they took. They either got multiple or lopsided results.
One candidate said the grading policy was ‘unrepresentative’ because she sat for social sciences and received grades in science subjects.
About 145,704 candidates representing 9.1 per cent have got multiple results during the recent UTME across the country, according to the Board. Some of the candidates with multiple results had their problems solved while a number of them were reportedly hanging at a loose end.
Responding to the complaints of multiple results, the Registrar said effort was being made to sort out the candidates involved. “The process of our marking involves transformation and other qualitative programming. In the process of these configurations, we had a little challenge which we quickly corrected and ensured that this never happened in subsequent results.  The challenge was only associated with the candidates that sat for examination on Saturday, February 27 and some candidates of Monday 29, February,” the Registrar said.
Following multiple challenges with the exams, the National Assembly has appealed to the Board to revert to paper-based test and extend the validity period of UTME results to three years. Government is yet to take a position on the matter but the Board had said going back to the old ways of paper-pencil testing as well as increasing the life span of UTME results to three years was rather counterproductive.  
Meanwhile, the Chairman House Committee on Basic education, Honorable Zakari Muhammed in company of the members of the committee visited the CBT center in Bwari where he said the computer test was better that the paper based test and that the  paper test was cumbersome and characterized with several irregularities. He said “the world is flying and we cannot be crawling.”