We are torn between condemning the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) for the failure of nearly 380,000 candidates of the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) in Lagos, Imo, Anambra, Abia, Enugu and Ebonyi states, and praising its Registrar, Prof Ishaq Oloyede, for the swift admission of error and apology.
After the elaborate explanation of the stringent processes and procedures that JAMB employed to ensure the integrity of the examinations, we are tempted to conclude that Murphy’s Law, which states that “if anything can go wrong, it will,” overwhelmed the JAMB system that everyone thought was invincible.
Prof Oloyede admitted that “it is just one of the two service providers (whose names he did not reveal) that did not do well by uploading properly.” Accordingly, JAMB arranged for a retake of the botched examination at the 157 centres that were affected.
Although Prof Oloyede described the “carelessness, negligence and lack of concern exhibited by the agents (saddled) with (the) critical, yet straightforward function,” as the cause of the problems, he held himself “personally responsible,” and tendered unreserved apologies.
In addition, JAMB has opened a Candidate Counselling Emergency Support Centre, where candidates with genuine concerns can reach out to dedicated officers to correct whatever challenges they may have with the ticketing platform.
Although all these remedial measures are commendable, we are not too sure that admission of mistake, offer of apologies by the JAMB Registrar and the opportunity offered to the candidates to retake the examinations are enough for the trauma caused by the glitches.
It is our opinion that those who carelessly compromised the integrity of the examinations, be they members of staff or contractors, should be shown the way out, in the most public manner, so that others, who remain within the JAMB system, will appreciate the need to uphold the best standards of service delivery.
Advertisement
No one should be allowed to hide under a corporate apology, especially in a situation where the future and lives of the children of Nigeria are concerned. The children are watching and waiting to see if there will be consequences for the institutional goof.
We read accounts of candidates who could hardly interact with the computers at the Computer Based Test centres; they simply did not know what to do. A JAMB examination centre supervisor reported that many of the candidates, who did not know what to do were simply staring at the computers after they had been instructed to commence the test.
Some of the candidates she supervised did not know how to use capital letters, delete mistakes, choose the correct answers, access the next question, change to the next subject, submit at the end of the test, use the mouse and find the calculator on the computer screen.
Such a candidate would have failed woefully, not necessarily because she did not know the answers, but because she was not conversant with the use of computers. This suggests that not everyone has access to, or has the knowledge of the use of computers.
Therefore, many of the candidates who took CBT over the years have been failing because they did not know how to use the computer to write a test. Despite the commendable Mock UTME organized by JAMB to get the candidates familiar with computer-based exams, if those in urban centres can fail so woefully with the use of computers, what would be the fate of candidates in the rural areas?
There is an urgent need for comprehensive review of the processes and the protocols of CBT examinations because the knowledge, access and use of the computer for examinations are not as universal as some may assume.
With regards to access to the use of computers, for anything at all, Nigeria appears to be in a crisis situation. And only an emergency action will reverse the dangerous trend that is confronting school children.
While we acknowledge and laud the giant strides made under the Ishaq Oloyede-led JAMB, especially the innovations he brought into the system to enhance the integrity of UTME, curb examination malpractices, reduce in-house corruption, admission racketeering in some higher institutions of learning, among others, it is time that JAMB, the Federal Ministry of Education, the Computer Association of Nigeria and other stakeholders had a roundtable to fashion out a strategy to make the computer and its use more available in the Nigerian schools.
END
Be the first to comment