The Registrar, Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board,
Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, has said 1.7 million candidates are expected to sit 2017
Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination in April.
He said this on Tuesday in Abeokuta at the sideline of the
examination body’s Information and Communication Technology retreat, involving
civil society groups, students and other major stakeholders.
The two-day retreat held within the Olusegun Obasanjo
Presidential Library complex in Abeokuta.
He said JAMB also aimed to increase the capacity of its
Computer-Based Test centres in order to make the April examination seamless.
He said, “We are expecting 1.7 million candidates to sit
JAMB this year and we want to make sure we satisfy these candidates within a
week or thereabout.
“That is why we are increasing the capacity of the
Computer-Based Test centres to be able to examine more candidates within a
given date.”
Oloyede, who said the body would not promise a hitch-free
examination, noted that there were changes and innovations ongoing, which would
send some illegal operators, who had defrauded candidates in the past, out of
business.
The JAMB boss, however, said the examination body would not
be deterred in its mission to serve its candidates better.
He said, “I must be frank with you, I cannot promise a
hitch- free examination because we are testing certain things.
“We are changing certain things. We want to question the
status quo and of course, we expect a fight back by interest that will be
trampled upon.
“We are going to be as sincere as possible in the direction
we are going. We are going to be as flexible as humanly possible. We are not
promising a hitch-free examination.
“We envisaged that there will be hitches here and there, but
they will not be insurmountable. Rather than promising the nation a hitch-free
examination, we will be promising a direction we will all be pleased with.”
He argued that this informed JAMB’s decision to invite
stakeholders to critique its processes as it would not want to continue in the
wrong direction.
He said, “We are
creating some ICT facilities and we want our stakeholders, prospective
candidates, respected scholars, institutions, civil societies to come together
and critique what we are doing so that we can be sure before we go too far in a
wrong direction.
“This is with a view to harvesting good ideas that could
improve what we are doing.”
He said the CBT had come to stay, adding that four African
countries had indicated interest to understudy Nigeria regarding the
examination system.
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