• Plead for another chance
From Wilson Okereke, Afikpo
No fewer than 30 candidates for the rescheduled 2023 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) missed the examination due to heavy rainfall in Ebonyi State.
Some of the candidates also blamed unavailability of means of transportation and other avoidable circumstances for their missing the exercise slated to hold by 6:30 am on Saturday, May 6.
They have, therefore, appealed to the Federal Ministry of Education to intervene on their behalf by directing the Joint Admissions Matriculation Board (JAMB), to give them another opportunity.
One of the candidates who missed the rescheduled exercise, Miss Onyinyechi Ucha, appealed for JAMB officials’ consideration for a second chance, perhaps during the mop-up examination.
“On Wednesday, 26th April, 2023, when I sat for the examination for the first time, I had a problem with my own computer, which was corrected 30 minutes later; the rest candidates had begun and it was not quite long, abruptly all the systems went off and at the end.
We went home without continuing, we later checked back on the following day, that’s how I personally had been checking constantly until today that I encountered this particular problem of lateness,” she said.
Master Stephen Eze attributed his lateness to the unavailability of vehicles and other means of transportation after he had concluded his preparation for the examination. He also called for the intervention of the JAMB headquarters over his plight.
Mr. Mathew Odama, who brought his deaf and dumb cousin for the examination from Cross River State, said that the disappointment of the candidate over the examination started from the commercial vehicle that he boarded which broke down on the way and only to be repaired after the scheduled time had gone far.
He disclosed that he was at the same center last month when there was a network issue and in an effort to avoid all obstacles he left home by 3:00 am only to encounter a vehicular problem on the way which eventually led to the lateness at the examination centre around 8:00 am.
The Education Report gathered that the candidates were about to finish the same examination on Wednesday, April 26, when suddenly the network system went off and disrupted the test, thereby leaving them stranded.
One of the examination officials at Ebonyi State University, CTB Centre 1, Chinyere Agara said that the April 26 examination was rescheduled as a result of the technical issue involving the JAMB server which made all the computers of the candidates shut down.
On Saturday’s incident, she said: “The situation perhaps did not allow them to get commercial vehicles or other means of transportation and they are not happy over the problem and there is nothing we can do about it, personally, I was not happy because the children had spent a lot of time and resources too, I really felt for them.”
Master Ifeanyichukwu Nweke who participated in the 6:30 am examination told The Education Report that he was able to defile the rains and came on time. He expressed happiness for having not encountered any problems in the rescheduled exercise.