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By Gabriel Dike
The 2017 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), which ended on Friday last week, will definitely go down as one of the worst in the life of the Joint Admissions and Matriculations Board (JAMB).
Confusion trailed the registration exercise, even as the conduct of the examination was marred by avoidable man-made problems.
Some candidates and their parents are still writhing in agony over their predicament while registering for the exam and during the exam itself.
Hiccups characterised the registration for the 2017 UTM, as the candidates faced numerous challenges because the board introduced new methods for registration.
Last year aggrieved candidates staged a rally in Lagos and occupied the Lagos State House of Assembly in protest against the poor handling of the UTME by JAMB and the accredited cybercafé operators. The aggrieved candidates, who came from different parts of the state, first converged on their respective exam centres before making the journey through the Ikorodu Road to Maryland en route to Alausa where they pleaded with the lawmakers to intervene in resolving their plight.
This year, throughout the registration crisis, the Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu and Minister of State for Education, Prof Anthony Anwukah did not offer any intervention to solve the registration problem, neither did the JAMB registrar, Professor Ishaq Oloyede.
ERC and parents reactions
In a response to the registration crisis, the Education Rights Campaign (ERC) condemned the hardship inflicted by JAMB on applicants for this year’s UTME.
A statement signed by National Coordinator of ERC, Taiwo Hassan and National Secretary, Ibukun Omole informed that stories of different degrees of hardship experienced by candidates and their parents were rife in the media. “From congested registration centres to highhandedness of security operatives, there are indications that JAMB is about to organize one of the worst examinations in the history of the board.
“Government and JAMB erroneously believe that examination malpractice is a crime that can be curbed through the development of tighter controls and monitoring, as well as deployment of technology to strengthen the integrity of the examination process. This was the reason the examination body launched the Computer Based Test (CBT) few years ago. But instead of the CBT reducing examination malpractice, it has been riddled with all kinds of complaints. Especially in the prevailing condition of inadequate computer illiteracy and little or no infrastructure to support it, the CBT has only succeeded in putting the examination process in further chaos,” the group observed.
A parent, Mr. Femi Solaja, who monitored the registration exercise because two of his children were caught in the crisis, said it was wrong for JAMB to come up with a new registration method without adequate information to candidates.
“It took my sons three weeks before scaling through the registration exercise. This year’s UTME registration exercise was about the worse we have experienced. JAMB was not bothered about the problem, they were proffering solutions that did not work. After my son registered for the UTME, one of them was sent to Osun State. I don’t know the criteria JAMB used. Government must see to it that JAMB makes the process less cumbersome,” Solaja said.
Mrs. Adejoke Oladele, another parent, wondered how JAMB sent her 19-year-old daughter to Abeokuta to write the UTME when she applied and processed her registration in Lagos.
“My daughter and I had to leave a day ahead to spend the night with a relation, and it took us another three hours to locate the venue. This certainly will affect her performance,” she said.
Conduct of UTME
The UTME started on a wrong footing, as the examination was characterized by several hiccups in many CBT centres. Hence, the examination did not start on time in some venues because the generating sets packed up. In others, the computer system malfunctioned, forcing candidates to wait for a long time for the computers to restart.
The matriculation examination taken by over 1.7million candidates seeking admissions into the universities, polytechnics and colleges of education was also marred by the late arrival of candidates. Some were about two hours late to the venue, particularly those coming from another state.
At Eko College Management Technology, Southfield Children Academy, Bariga and Shom International School, the generators packed up and the candidates waited for hours before the faults were detected or repaired or new ones were hired.
Several candidates who wrote the UTME complained that their computers were slow and some specifically said their system went off and had to be restarted. The candidates and parents also faulted the accreditation process, stressing that it took more time than was required.
Mrs. Toyin Adewale said her daughter and other candidates were kept waiting at Eko College Management Technology, Egbe while the process of accreditation was too slow.
Due to the hitches they experienced last year and this year, two candidates, Emmanuel Alogunsa and Uchenna Ezeoka appealed to the Federal Government to prevail on JAMB to revert to paper exam. Both candidates, who wrote the UTME at Classic International School, EJigbo, said many candidates were scared of computers and that not every candidate knows how to operate computers.
“The computer-based test has been giving some candidates high blood pressure. Candidates pass more during paper and pencil examination than this e-exam. My computer went off twice and the time continued to read,” Uchenna stated.
Sharing his experience, Bola Oyewole said the computer he was using for the exam suddenly hung up and he had to restart the system. “There is no time. We rushed for accreditation and we didn’t finish before they asked us to stop.”
Centre Administrator of Bafuto CBT centre, Mr. Adekunle Banjo, faulted those calling for the return of paper and pencil exam, saying it would take the nation 20 years back. He said there were many advantages to the e-exam.
Personal assistant to the proprietor of Classic International School, Ejigbo, Mrs. Esther Oriyomi said the UTME started at 8.00am but that some candidates came late to the venue. Oriyomi decried the problems associated with the registration process and stated that the e-exam had eliminated exam malpractices.
At WAEC CBT Centre, Agidingbi, it was gathered that the supervisor delayed the start of the UTME for one hour to accommodate some candidates coming in from outside Lagos, particularly the ones from Ogun State.
The second batch of candidates who wrote the UTME at 1.30pm were kept outside for over four hours in the scourging sun, it was gathered.
Blame game
JAMB has promised that, from next year, it would come up with more stringent conditions for would-be CBT operators. The registrar, Professor Oloyede, in a chat with journalists in Lagos, absolved the board of the many hiccups experienced during the matriculation examination and heaped the blame on candidates, parents and CBT operators.
Oloyede acknowledged the issue of poor power supply leading to computer shutdowns, inability of the biometric system to identify candidates’ finger prints as well as the muddling up of subject combinations, saying the CBT operators were to blame.
But the Principal of Royal Academy, Ibadan, Chief Laide Oluwaseun, countered Oloyede. He wondered why JAMB would turn around and blame the candidates and CBT operators for the hitches experienced during the conduct of the UTME. He insisted that the board must accept responsibility of the shortcomings.
The educationist said in the last three years, JAMB had been coming up with different policies that ended up compounding the registration exercise and the conduct of the UTME. He advised the board to review the process of registration and conduct of the matriculation examination.
