It was mixed reactions among candidates that sat for the
Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination, UTME, last
week, when the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board,
JAMB, partly released results of the examination.
While many candidates whose results were released are
rejoicing, other candidates who were denied registration
described the JAMB Registrar’s action as harsh.
Vanguard, while monitoring the UTME observed that unlike
previous years where candidates’ results were released
immediately they left the examination hall, in this case, the
results were released three days after.
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JAMB candidates
Our source disclosed that the decision of JAMB not to
release the results immediately was to enable Board go
through its CCTV and identify those involved in examination
malpractice.
Meanwhile, a visit by Vanguard to Sururele and Lawanson
approved JAMB Computer-Based Test, CBT centres in
Lagos State, showed students expressing delight as they
trooped out from examination halls.
Better than 2017
According to Chioma Igwe who wrote her examination at
Knowledge Ware Technology Limited, one of the approved
CBT centres in Lawanson, this year’s UTME was better in all
ramifications compared to last year’s, owing to the fact that
the servers were functional. For her, the questions were
much easier and the officials were more coordinated.
Her words: “If JAMB last year was close to this year’s
examination in terms of functionality of the servers; the
questions set and the conducive environment, I wouldn’t
have failed.
“ This year’s JAMB is a huge success as my centre started
on time and all the servers were working and the
environment conducive. I even finished my questions before
the stop time,“ said an elated Igwe.
Corroborating Igwe’s claim of the exam being hitch-free,
17- year-old Joshua Abayomi also of the same centre said:
“ I was more at peace writing today’s JAMB as everything
was on point, despite the calculations I did as a science
student.
According to him, from the questions, to the conducive
environment, all was great. I want to believe that if JAMB
had always been conducted this way, we would have no
complaints provided we, the candidates, prepare
adequately,” he stressed.
Also, at Reliance S&T Limited, one of the registered
approved JAMB CBT centres at Surulere, it was a success
story.
Mrs Adebambo who brought her daughter to the centre said
her daughter came out happy as she was able to complete
her exam without disruption of the server compared to last
year’s.
“You can see my daughter, she is very happy to do this
JAMB as this server worked well and the questions very
easy,” added the joyous mother.
Reacting to the acclaimed success of this year’s JAMB, Mr
James Owolabi, one of the coordinators at KnowledgeWare
centre said success of the examination was due to the over
all coordination of the JAMB authorities and the obedience
to laid down rules and regulations by the centres.
Concerned parents
However, concerned parents whose children were denied
the 2018 UTME registration because JAMB shut their portal
early, lamented their wards’ denial to sit for the exams,
adding that it would cost them another year.
Admission Analysis
Statistics show that in the 2017 UTME, a total of
approximately 1,700,000 candidates took the exam, out of
the 1,700,000 candidates, the combined admission capacity
of all higher institutions in Nigeria could only admit
approximately 700,000 candidates.
The above data implies that 1,000,000 candidates for the
2017 UTME were not admitted eventually.
Most of those candidates who scored above the JAMB
stipulated admission cut-off of 120 were still hopeful of
securing admission into one institution or the other up till
January 25, when JAMB ordered all institutions to draw the
curtain on their admission processes. Some institutions
even went beyond that date, keeping some candidates
hopeful beyond January 25.
The implication is that almost one million (1,000000)
candidates only realised their hope of admission had been
dashed by the last week in January.
This further implies that almost one million (1,000000)
candidates who are still interested in tertiary education
started rushing to get registered for the 2018 UTME by early
February.
Barrister Moronfolu Adetunji, Mrs Adebowale Rukayat, Dr.
Josephine Robert and Chief Emmanuel Eromosele in their
reactions took a swipe at JAMB for closing its registration
portal for the UTME 2018 on the 11th of February.
Adetunji said: ”Logically, about one million candidates had
only 14 days to register for the examination. It would be the
8th or 9th wonder of the modern world if this can be
achieved in Nigeria where UTME registration is restricted to
only JAMB handpicked CBT centers that could not register
700,000 candidates in two months.
“It is then reasonable to say that so many aspiring
candidates were denied the opportunity of registering as at
the stipulated deadline. Their only sin is that they are
Nigerians and they are therefore subjected to the whims
and caprices of JAMB and its all-knowing and all-powerful
registrar.
More pathetic is the case of those unfortunate candidates
who by stroke of luck, were able to register before the
deadline and were asked to get ready to take the exam by
March 9, barely a month after realising they wouldn’t be
admitted in the 2017 admission process. It is really a hell to
be a Nigerian.
“Would they have been preparing to write another UTME in
2018 while still hoping to secure admission in the 2017
process? Is it then fair to subject them to another round of
failure after collecting N6,200 from their impoverished
parents?”
Reacting to the JAMB Registrar’s excuse, Dr Josephine
Robert said: “Let us examine the excuse given by JAMB why
it cannot postpone the exam:
They want admission processes to be concluded by August.
The question is “Is three months after UTME (June, July
and August) not enough for the institutions to conclude
admission processes, assuming UTME is written in May?
“Which other country of the world apart from Nigeria would
candidates go blindly into the admission procedure? Why
can’t institutions disclose their admission criteria even
before registration for UTME in a given year so that
candidates would know ab-initio whether to choose a
particular school/course or not? Do we even know the
institutions that would conduct post-UTME this year and
those that wouldn’t? Why is it so difficult for JAMB to
compel the schools to disclose their admission policies
openly? Is it because JAMB is in cahoots with the tertiary
institutions in fleecing the hapless candidates and their
poor parents of their hard earned money? I pity the Nigerian
candidates.
“Which other examination body forces candidates to pay
heavily for every mistake made during registration, even
before the deadline?
Why is JAMB alongside its registrar, bent on killing
Nigerians financially on the altar of making money for
government? Is JAMB now Nigerian Custom Service or
Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS)?
The Buhari administration is trying hard to put food on
people’s table while JAMB is hell bent on taking the food
away. It’s a shame that we can be this inconsiderate in this
country.
“If we decide to stay silent on this mind-numbing issue
simply because it doesn’t affect us today, who would cry for
us and with us if it affects us tomorrow?”
