The Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board(JAMB), Prof. Ishaq Oloyede has commended parents of Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) candidates for abiding by the rule of staying far away from the Computer Based Centers(CBT) where the examination is taking place.
Recall that the Board had threatened to arrest any parent found near any of the CBT Centers during the exercise which started on Friday.
JAMB Registrar who made the commendation while monitoring the UTME exercise in Abuja on Friday said, “We want to thank the public for heeding to our advice because it appears that everybody is doing what they are expected to do. I must thank the media for sensitizing the public.
“Things will move smoothly if parents will keep away as can be seen in all the centers visited this morning. They are the ones constituting the problem for the students but you can see that everything is going on well,” he said.
Oloyede also explained that during the examination, any session that encounters difficulties will be rescheduled after the last session of the day.
“ It does not mean that when session one that is supposed to start at 8.0clock fails… you cannot say that those people that belong to the session, should now do session two, no.
“Their own exam has to be programmed for them from the headquarters…those things are programmed from headquarters. So we are appealing to members of the public to understand it is not automatically that the center has failed,” he said.
The JAMB boss, who expressed satisfaction at the level of success of the on-going examination, stated that the Board was ready for any challenge that may occur at the course of the exercise.
“I have heard of only one issue at a CBT center throughout the country today but I expect about 10 percent of the centers to have one problem or the other because we know the level of development in different parts of the country. We are not encouraging it but when it happens, please do not disrupt others. Let the session go on,” he said.
Oloyede who also stated that the Board also has zero tolerance for examination infractions and other unwholesome practices, expressed satisfaction at what JAMB has put in place to curb examination malpractices.
“Today’s examination is important to us because we have done some engineering that we have been trying to do in the last seven years that we are only successful today. Those who are fraudsters, they know they are in trouble because for the first time, we have been able to do certain things that we have been aspiring to do. Anybody who tries us, will regret it,” he added.
He also commended the security agencies in the country for ensuring that fraudsters who wanted to defraud UTME candidates were arrested.
“We have also found out that some of the candidates are giving their details to fraudsters. Fortunately, we thank the security agencies. They have been good to us. Almost all the people that have been doing this are already in the police net,” he said.
Meanwhile, candidates, CBT owners, parents and supervisors who spoke with NewsNGR during the monitoring exercise stated that the examination went smoothly without any hitches.
At Adeola International School, Kubwa Abuja, a supervisor, Prof. Rasheed Ojutiko, commended the level of preparedness by JAMB for the examination, adding that everything was going as planned.
“For this year, the process has been so hitch free. We haven’t had any problems. There is no security problem. The facilities have been in order. I think JAMB has really tried to make sure that things are done properly,” he said.
Also speaking, Center Technical Staff at Rosa Mystical Academy, Kubwa, Abuja, Adedotun Osigoya stated that compared to last year’s examination which experienced technical hitches on the first day, this year’s examination was going smoothly.
“We have 236 candidates for the first session. We have only two sessions for today. There are no hitches at all. Compared to last year, this year is far much better. Last year, we were told that it was based on server issues which we believed had been resolved,”he said.