JAMB CBT

JAMB UTME AND COMPUTER BASED TEST (CBT);

SO FAR SO.......?

BY:

MUDASSIR ALIYU YUNUSA

mudassiray@gmail.com

JAMB, the acronym of Joint Admission and Matriculation Board is a federal government parastatal established and vested with the power/ authority to organize preliminary exams and other processes of joining Universities, Colleges of Education, Polytechnics, Monotechniques and other Tertiary Institutions in the country through Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).

In Nigeria, it is a compulsory manner that one must register with the Board for him/her to be admitted into any of the Nigerian universities particularly public owned from the grass root (i.e year one), and however even direct entry students have to register through JAMB for them to secure admissions. This makes the enrolment into the Nigerian universities very difficult and so complicated especially with some procedures given by JAMB.

Before, the process of registering candidates wishing to write JAMB/UME and  JAMB/POLY was manual and the exam usually took place nationwide in a single day, where the candidates were assembled in their respective examination centres for the purpose of writing the paper simultaneously and manually. Question papers were designed and distributed in different types to avoid examination malpractice. But with the advent of computer and information technology JAMB adopted the system gradually right from marking the papers, online registration, merging UME and Polytechnics and colleges of education exams  to became UTME as well as the current computer based test among others.

This year's UTME is going on in a modern way, which abolishes the old system of using question papers. The new system is online/ networking programme, the Computer Based Test (CBT) was introduced because of insecurity and high cost of producing writing materials, reducing examination malpractice as well as the cost of  transporting the materials across the country to mention a few.

Quite rightly the new system is  another development considering how internet system used to simplify things and compressed the whole world into smaller entity especially with website and globallization. But in respect to the ongoing UTME which is suppose to last for 10 days, despite it facilitated the release of results in less than 24 hours, but along the line so many irregularities have been found in the course of writing the CBT exam, eventhough the system is new but the process is highly ineffective compared to the previous. I was at some centres but what I actually saw and what I captured from interviews were very discouraging. The first problem is that, eventhough the exam is said to be conducted online but still examination centres are disperse across the federation and some candidates are forced to accept any examination centre even if it falls outside their state of origins, this also create additional cost of transportation, feeding and accomodation (as the case may be) to the candidates. The cancellation of some exam centres brings additional tension as some candidates are left stranded, wandering up and down in search of new designated centres especially the students that came from far away. Problem of verification is another setback that affect the smooth running of the exam, in this case candidates that are suppose to write the exam by 10:00am were kept waiting up to 9:00pm infact some candidates spent more than 48 hours waiting with no accommodations.

 Moreso, after enduring the aforementioned Problems the next is the computer and network problems which instigates another tension that negatively affect the performance of  some candidates.

Though, this could be considered as an experimental work to the JAMB being the first time of making the whole system online, yet, it is not suppose to be like that as to me this showcases the level of unpreparedness by the exam governing body to adopt and make the system fully efficient.

Therefore, the attention of Federal Ministry of Education is highly needed in as much as our government is committed towards repositioning and uplifting the system of education up to standard. Ultra modern Computer laboratories are suppose to be provided in every JAMB centre to reduce congestion during the exam period.

The issues of sending candidates outside their state should ought to be abolished since the exam is now conducted online, this entails that even somebody from America or Australia can write the exam without any hitch.

 For JAMB, there is need for them to  improve the system effectively since each candidate paid about N5000 for registration, they must avoid repeating the blunders that is happenning this time and at the same time candidates should try to be computer literate, law abiding and obey the rules and regulations associated with the exams.

I hope next year's exam will be improved and better than this year's UTME.

MUDASSIR write from NTA Zaria.