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  • Why JAMB candidates will pay extra for 2024 UTME – Registar

    Why JAMB candidates will pay extra for 2024 UTME – Registar

    Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Prof Ishaq Oloyede, has denied that the examination body increased the fees for the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) for 2024.

    He explained that the extra money being paid by candidates was a charge by operators of Computer Based Test (CBT) centres to assuage the high cost of diesel.

    He said JAMB only facilitated the process of collecting the payments so that candidates would not be exploited by the operators.

    Prof Oloyede said this when he appeared before the House of Representatives Committee on Basic Education at the National Assembly Complex on Wednesday, December 20.

    The JAMB registrar also knocked some universities for overshooting the number of students approved to be admitted for a session.

    This, he said, eventually causes problems for the students.

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    He promised to turn over the names of such institutions to the House Committee for further legislative action.

    The Registrar also said the examination body was working to recover N4.2 billion owed by Zenith Bank over previous transactions.

    He said the matter was being investigated by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

    Oloyede stated: “For the CBT centres, I also feel their pain because we also have about 45 of them owned by JAMB directly. We know what they are going through.

    “The money is not paid by JAMB but the students themselves. You know N700 for registration and N700 for examination but given the cost of diesel this year, we only allowed them, not that we are paying them because we are collecting from the students and passing to the centres.

    “This year we are about announcing. The advertisement is just coming out. We are going to allow them to charge as much as N1500 for UTME because of cost of diesel.

    “But you can see the press in the past one week, that JAMB has increased the cost. What we have done is to allow to the CBT centres to charge more than they are charging. But because we are going to collect it for them, why are we collecting it is because if we leave them alone they will extort the students and they will be collecting N4000 or N5000. That is why we said pay to us and we would transfer it to you weekly.

    “We have raised it from N700 to N1500 effective from 2024 so as to allow them to recoup. We have not increased JAMB fee. We only allowed this people to charge a better fee by adding to what they are charging but all the newspapers had reported it that we have increased the charges.

    Also speaking on the approval given to higher institutions on the number of students to be admitted, he said most of them are admitting more than the approved number.

    “We are ready to give you the names and you don’t need to go far. They are many of them around. It is general indiscipline. NUC gives the quota for universities, NBTE gives for polytechnics and NCC gives for Colleges of Education. But unfortunately some of these our people would go and, not only would they get more, they would not disclose the admission until candidates are ready to go on NYSC and they cannot go because without admission letter they can go.

    “It is then they would talk about regularisation. How can you regularise what is not regular? So what we are saying is that you have admitted a candidate four years ago, we provided the data for Bureau of Statistics, now suddenly about one million emerged that were not registered at all and people would say it is JAMB who is holding them.

    “We are holding them because they were not properly admitted. We would provide you a list of such people and you call them. Many of them would write letters of apology this year and they would still do it next year and they would write another letter of apology. You cannot kill them.”

    Chairman of the Committee, Hon Oboku Ofoji, urged the Board to reconcile its financial records with the office of the Accountant General of the Federation.

    He said the interface with the examination body was not a witch-hunt.

    He said it was an effort to improve the educational sector in the country.

    “I want to also clear one wrong impression that it is a witch-hunt. This job is about our country and educational sector. so for us to interface with you and you see all the national television here, to me I was thinking that JAMB would appreciate this conversation openly. It goes a long way to inform Nigerians how prepared JAMB is. We all owe Nigerians explanations about our stewardship.”

  • Candidates forced to abandon WASSCE for UTME

    Some candidates writing the ongoing 2019 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) for schools were not able to sit for their examination on Thursday because it clashed with the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) which started the same day with three sessions scheduled daily.

    JAMB and WAEC had promised to sought out the clash in timetables which affects about 23 Entrepreneurship/Trade WASSCE subjects scheduled to hold during the six days that the UTME would last.

    SS3 candidates writing the WASSCE were scheduled to write Animal Husbandry and Store Management today (April 11, 2019) but because the time clashed with the UTME, missed the examination.

    A parent who does not wish to be named, said his daughter and about 20 others at Providence High School, Fagba, could not sit for Animal Husbandry scheduled to start 9.30am – 30 minutes after they were to write their UTME at the Lagooz CBT Centre, O’Riley Agege, Lagos.

    “My daughter could not write Animal Husbandry today. She was to write UTME at Lagooz School by 9 a.m. But the exam did not start until 11am. By the time she got back to her school, she did not meet the invigilators for (Animal Husbandry). She was not the only one affected.

    “There were about 20 of them. But their teachers told them they could get a chance to do an alternative version of the paper on the 15th,” he said.

    A teacher at Winners Treasure Kids School, Ketu, also said the clashing timetables did not affect most pupils in her school.

    A pupil from another school said nobody was affected in his school because none of them offered the subjects written on Thursday.

    Meanwhile, the UTME went well in centres monitored by The Nation.

    At Connection Computer training Institute, Cele, Ojo, accreditation and biometrics of candidates started late and was slow.

    There were four sessions for the exam – 7am, 9am, 1:30pm and 3:00pm.

    Miss Shittu Ronke, a candidate in the first batch, said the examination went well save for minor delays.
    ‘’I started the examination after 8 and finished after 10. I am a science student. I did English, Chemistry, Biology and physics. The physics was hard for me but I did my best. I am happy because my computer did not trip off during the examination. After the examination, we were told to stay in a room from there we queued up and thumb printed out’’.

    Mr Kalu Uche, another candidate in the second batch, also said his system did not malfunction.

    However, a female candidate, who was meant to write Physics, Chemistry, Biology and English 7am, missed her examination.

    Read Also: JAMB to investigate inability of candidates to do biometric verification

    She said she was late because she lived too far from the CBT Centre. She got to the centre some minutes to 8am.

    The candidate who identified herself as Oge, blamed her lateness on traffic.

    ‘’I stay at Ota. I left the house around to 6am this morning. On my way, there was traffic. When registering, I picked a centre closer to my place which is Festac but I was posted here. I was told to write a letter to the Jamb Zonal Regional Office if I have a reasonable excuse,’’ she said.

    A parent who simply called himself Mr Orji, said stopping Oge from writing the exam was pure wickedness.

    ‘’With this new order now, a girl missed her examination and there is no way or remedy for it. She was asked to write a letter to the jamb headquarters office. For me, if they had allowed her to write before immediately she came, she will almost be true by now. It is just pure wickedness,” he said.

    Speaking on the conduct of the examination, Mr Kayode Gbenga, a parent urged Jamb to improve on their biometrics.

    ‘’With what I have seen, JAMB is trying. But they should improve on their biometrics. In my opinion, thumb printing out should be done immediately after the examination. Why do the candidates have to stay in a room, queue up before they thumbprint out. It is a long process,’’ he said.

  • JAMB candidates protest alleged irregularities during exam

    About 95 candidates  who registered to write the just concluded Joint Administration and Matriculation Board conducted matriculation exam in Ebonyi State on Friday in Abakaliki, protested alleged irregularities during the exam.

    According to them, the irregularities include alleged denial to write the exams in some of the centers in the state and disappearance of their results from the JAMB website.

    The students claimed that they were divided  into two sections at Stella Maris Center in Ohaukwu Local Government Area of the  state since the hall and available computers could not accommodate all of them but after the first section, there was no time to conduct the exams for the second batch.

    The protesters also included other candidates who alleged what they described as “mysterious” disappearance of their results from the board’s website after it had been reportedly released.

    They carried placards with various inscriptions such as: ‘JAMB don’t frustrate our academic pursuit; we are disappointed in JAMB; we were denied exams after registration; JAMB release our results among others’.

    One of the candidates who identified herself as Okorie Felicia noted that the JAMB officials told them to wait, that their exams would be rescheduled since there was no space and computers to accommodate them.

    “We were supposed to have our exams on March 10, 2018 by 9am. About 95 of us were asked to wait that we would write our exams before another segment by 1pm. We waited patiently but those accommodated in the 9am segment extended to the afternoon exam schedule. Since then, the JAMB officials have not done anything to reschedule the exams for us.”

    Another candidate, Ugwu Peter,  said:  “My own case is that I checked my result and I scored 274 but when I went to print the result, no score  was found. I screenshot the result on my phone but it disappeared when I went back to print it out. Nobody has told us what happened since then and I am afraid about  what may have happened to the result.”

    A coordinator of one of the Centres in the state, who spoke on condition of anonymity, called on the examination board to revert to the paper exams, adding that lack of exam materials at various centers has culminated to the inefficiencies in the conduct of the examinations.

    He further called on the board to reschedule the exams for the affected students and also expedite actions toward the prompt release of the remaining results.

    When contacted,  the state’s JAMB Coordinator, Mrs Jame  Iheme said she was not aware of any protest by the candidates.

    “Where did you say the candidates protested? I was not told but if you want to publish what happened, go ahead,” she said

  • Ekiti JAMB candidates rue poor results

    The 2017/2018 candidates of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) said many of them failed this year’s examination. Some of candidates said the time scheduled for the examination was too short while some of the computers used for the examinations malfunctioned.

    Those who spoke with our correspondent include Tope Anjorin, Gbenga Fabiyi, Nneoma Ubani and Bisola Ajayi.

    They said some of the questions their examiner asked were not difficult but they were disappointed when they saw their ýscores on the internet.

    Anjorin recalled that though most of the questions were simple while others were difficult, but he was shocked when he saw 175 as her scores.

    Ajayi said she was not happy with the result of the examination because most of her colleagues failed woefully.

    Fabiyi and Ubani condemned the examination, adding that they scored below their expectations.

    The state’s JAMB Coordinator Hezekiah Onileowo said the current examination was peaceful without any malpractices.

    Onileowo said those who failed did not prepare well while others were not patient enough to read the instructions and the questions of the examination.

    The JAMB coordinator said the candidates concluded their examination at the state’s JAMB centre on March 14, but the two other centres at Ile-Abiye and the Federal Polytechnic in Ado-Ekiti would conclude theirs on March 17.

    The other two centres are currently having examination and security operatives, such as the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) and the police were on guard to provide tight security at the centres.

  • JAMB candidates take to violence at Lagos Assembly

    JAMB candidates take to violence at Lagos Assembly

    SOME candidates, who wrote the 2016 Unified Tertiary Matriculations Examination (UTME) Computer Based Test (CBT), took their grievances to the Lagos State House of Assembly in Alausa, Lagos yesterday.

    But the candidates, numbering hundreds, along with their parents and tutorial centre operators, went violent.

    They threw stones at the Assembly security gate and security men to ventilate their anger after waiting for hours without being attended to by the lawmakers.

    Some of the candidates were arrested by members of the Rapid Response Squad (RRS), who were mobilised to prevent them from entering the Assembly premises.

    They faulted the “wrong scores” released by the Joint Admissions Matriculation Board (JAMB) for the examination.

    They questioned the integrity of the results released by JAMB since some candidates had 40 marks added and others had marks deducted from their original scores.

    The candidates chanted statements like “give us our real marks”; “This cannot be our real marks”; “Dibu must go”; “Our systems went off during exam and nothing was done about it.”

    Addressing the protesting candidates, the Majority Leader of the House, Sanai Agunbiade, said it was not the fault of the lawmakers that they did not attend to them promptly.

    He explained that they were busy attending to other important matters.

    Agunbiade told them that they were in the right place to lodge their complaint, adding that they should not have been violent.

    He assured them that their case would be taken to the appropriate quarters.

    However, JAMB claimed that the protest was fuelled by “education consultants, whose CBT centres were disqualified from running the UTME for not meeting quality standard.

    Recounting their experiences yesterday, the candidates complained of system failure during the examination, text message scores that did not tally with online scores, among others.

    They asked JAMB to allow them retake the examination.

    Eniola Akinbiyi, who sat for the examination at Obafemi Awolowo University ICT Centre, Ile Ife, said her computer shut down twice during the examination.

    She said: “My computer shut down twice during the examination. I informed the supervisors and they said I should not worry. But when I checked my result, I had 188. That cannot be my result because what I read came out in the examination. I was very sure of myself.”

    Usman Sanusi, who had to travel from Lagos to his centre at Adedokun Hall, Ibadan, said he got four versions of results.

    “They sent three different scores to my phone. They first sent 101, then 178 and 188. Which one am I supposed to believe? When I finally checked online, I saw 179 and I could not accept the score, because I am better than that. My mum did not believe when I told her my score. She has been very angry with me, saying I wasted her money. JAMB is making parents fight with their children. Things are not so bad for students to enter university in other countries. Why is it always Nigeria that has problems with everything?” he said.

    Boluwatife Joseph took the examination at Igbajo Polytechnic in Osun State on March 7, and got results for subjects she did not take.

    “When I was writing my exam, the system shut down twice. I saw that I still had one hour 30 minutes left. But I had not even written Maths at all when the system shut down. When the result came out, I saw that I had 37 in English, the Maths I did not even write, I had 47. How come? Then my overall score, when sent by text was 220.  But when I went to print out yesterday, it became 168. What happened? It is unfair. This is my first time of writing JAMB and I don’t want to go to polytechnic,” she said.

    This year was the third time Temitope Ayeni took the UTME, and it was not a pleasant experience at her centre, Bachel Model College, Ogba on March 7.

    “When I was writing, my system went off and I still had about one hour. When I logged back in, it told me ‘submitted.’ When I got the result text message, it told me I scored 246. When I checked online on March 8, it told me ‘no result.’ This is not the first time I am writing JAMB. It is the third. Last year, they logged me out before I finished and I had 199. The year before, I had 258, but I did not gain admission because of UNILAG’s post-UTME,” she said.

    Olalekan Ajetumobi was marked absent even though he got to his centre on time and took the examination.

    President of the Association of Tutorial School Operators, Mr. Oludotun Shodunke, issued a three-day ultimatum to the JAMB Registrar, Prof. Dibu Ojerinde, to give the candidates their real grades.

    He said: “We are protesting because of the terrible thing done by the JAMB registrar. He decided not to mark this year’s JAMB. He just gave out marks arbitrarily.”

    Board: protest instigated by education consultants

    THE Joint Admissions Matriculation Board (JAMB) has urged the protesting candidates to direct their complaints to the board rather than being used by “education consultants” for selfish interest.

    A statement issued by its Public Relations Officer, Dr. Fabian Benjamin, described the “education consultants” as business owners that applied to run the examination as Computer Based Centres but failed JAMB’s screening.

    The statement reads: “JAMB has called for calm and advised candidates to always avail themselves of the opportunity provided by the Board through it public complaints unit to vent their grievances and not to allow anybody to use them for any selfish interest.

    “The Board had approved centres provided by these individuals to be used for the 2016 exercise, but unfortunately couldn’t as the centres were found to be lacking in all the indices needed for a successful CBT examination.  This was discussed with these proprietors and they showed understanding as they witnessed the difficulties the Board went through to run even a session in their centres.

    “It is surprising that these same proprietors will turn around to organised candidates to protest over our activities.”

    Obviously referring to the hitches experienced in some centres during the conduct of the 14-day examination, Benjamin asked for support for the CBT examination, which he said is better than the paper-pencil test.

    “We are not perfect as an organisation but working hard to ensure that Nigerian education is better than it is.  We have taken the risk to do the unthinkable so as to change the paradigm.

    “It is no news that the worst CBT is far better than the best Paper and Pencil Test. At least, the era of candidates pouring acid on staff, bolting with question papers into the bush and all manners of unthinkable embarrassing acts are gone,” he said.

     

     

  • Travails of JAMB candidates in Bayelsa

    Travails of JAMB candidates in Bayelsa

    Most candidates that applied to participate in the ongoing Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) in Bayelsa State are currently going through a tough time. For no fault of theirs, the candidates are groaning and battling to have  computers to write the examination organized by the Joint Admission Matriculation Board (JAMB).

    The travails of the candidates are borne out of an online system adopted by JAMB for writing the examination. JAMB recently reorganized UTME and introduced a full-blown electronic system for the examination.

    The system, called Computer Based Test (CBT), requires the candidates to have fundamental or elementary knowledge of the computer because they are expected to use it to write the examination.

    Despite the advantages of the system which is designed to eliminate examination malpractices, the ongoing experiment has revealed some challenges. The Nation monitored the conduct of the examination in the five approved centres in Bayelsa State. A major challenge identified by our reporter in all the centres is lack of support infrastructure.

    Lack of electricity supply and insufficient computers heightened the level of frustration among the candidates in some of the centres. Two of the centres were located in the Niger Delta University (NDU) ,Amassoma, while others were in Agudama, Yenezue-Gene, and Otuoke.

    Candidates for the examination were stranded and seen complaining bitterly over the technical challenges they faced during the exam. One of the UTME’s technical employee, Mr. James Oladipo, said, unstable power supply was a big challenge.

    “Power failure is an issue and the generator we were provided with was going on and off. We have been  trying to rectify it and believe God will give us the grace to do that,” he said.

    He, however, said the computers provided for the candidates at the Niger Delta University Centre 1 were enough for the candidates.

    It was observed that the exam which was supposed to start at 9:00am began two or three hours later in some centres.

    One of the candidates, Masa Terry, while praising the system also criticized it for not taking into cognizance the poor infrastructural development in the country.

    He also said the system was not favourable to candidates from rural areas who were not conversant with the use of computers.

    “This is a modern system and it’s very good but for people who came from remote areas,it was not a good experience for them because they’ve never used a computer before. This resulted in mass failure,” he said.

    Another candidate, Ezi Rex, lamented that he could not join the first batch in writing the exam because the computers were in short supply.

    “Before initiatives like these are executed, adequate provisions should have been made so that nobody would be embarrassed at the end of the day”, he said.

    Also Mr. Obagua Jonathan, questioned the preparedness of JAMB for the examination.

    He said: “They said the exam would be done using computer  but we have been here since morning without being provided with any computers or other materials  to write the exam. I have been here since 6:00am. This is past  11:00am and I have not written the examination because the computers are in short supply. It is frustrating and capable of making us to be psychologically unstable to write the exam at the end of the day. ”

    But the State Coordinator, JAMB, Mr. Joseph Oboh, said the candidates are always instructed on modalities for answering questions before the commencement of the exams.

    He said the system was designed to eliminate examination malpractices and to enable candidates get their results three hours after writing the examination.

    The state Commandant of Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), Mr. Desmond Agu, took time to visit most of the centres. Agu and his entourage went round to ensure that the environment for the examination was adequately secured.

    His men were stationed around the centres to restrain persons who have no business with the examination. Agu commended JAMB for adopting the electronic system but observed that most of the challenges were technical.

    “It is one of the mandates of NSCDC to monitor every exam that is conducted in Nigeria. I commend JAMB for making use of this system despite the challenges which are basically technical,” he said.

    He said his men were mandated to check examination misconduct and advised candidates to report to their centres early. He said the examination would be conducted from March 10 to March 18