…JAMB tasks officials on guidelines
…as faulty biometric forces UTME’s postponement in EKSU CBT centre
Many candidates for the 2022 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) in Lagos, on Friday, battled an early morning downpour to get to their centres as the examination got underway.
The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB)-organised examination began in some 750 accredited centres nationwide, with 1.7 million candidates registered to participate.
In centres monitored in Lagos, candidates scheduled for the first session at 7.00 a.m. were mostly affected by the downpour, with some arriving late and being denied entry.
A correspondent who visited the WAEC Test and Training Centre (WTTC), one of the accredited centres for the examination in Ogba, noticed a group of candidates, who were desperately seeking for help, after having missed the test.
The same situation also applied at the Wisdom House Centre, off Yaya Abatan, also in Ogba, Command Secondary School Ipaja and Lagooz Schools Orile-Agege centres.
Other centres visited are Timeon Kairos Polytechnic and Professional Institute, Ile-Epo, Lagos Abeokuta Express way.
Despite the downpour, however, many candidates, accompanied by their parents, still turned up as early as 6.00a.m. to beat the examination time in centres visited.
Some of the candidates who failed to meet up with their schedule, blamed the heavy rain for their plight, appealing to JAMB’s management to look into the matter.
Miss Esther Oladokun told NAN that she lives at Ajunwon in Ogun, a border with Lagos, and that knowing full well the time of her examination, left her house at 5.30 a.m.
She said that she was, unfortunately, caught up in the rain and could not arrive at the WTTC in good time.
According to her, the vehicle she entered broke down as a result of flood.
She said she had to get down to seek another solution to her challenge only to get to her centre at 8.13 a.m but was not allowed access by the examination officials.
Miss Chiamaka Ezeaputa said left her home at Ota, near Bells University, another Ogun border community, near Lagos, as early as 5: am, hoping to be at her centre before 6.30 a.m.
She said that following the early morning rain, there was huge traffic and this created problems for her.
The candidate said that after being stuck, she had to take a motorcycle at an exhorbitant rate, but arrived the centre at 9.20 a.m.
She said that she was denied access into the hall by the examination officials.
Miss Blessing Akindoyin, who said she lives at Sango, also blamed the early morning downpour for her lateness.
She claimed there was difficulty in getting commercial vehicles and she got to her centre late for the 7.00a.m. examination.
One of the centre supervisors at the WTTC who did not want her name in print, told NAN that the examination began at exactly 8.30 a.m.
She said that lateness to the examination centre was not allowed.
“This examination commenced at 8:30 a.m. Even with the rain, I got here at about 5:30 a.m. and everything was set.
“All we needed for the commencement of the examination was in place.
“We were actually supposed to start the examination by 8.00 a.m. but because of the rain, we had to give 30 minutes grace.
“At least you can see the hall is almost filled to capacity. These ones too, came here early enough, despite the rain.
“We have over 240 candidates each, in both the centre one and two, out of the 250 capacity benchmark for each of these centres,” she said.
She said that so far, the excercise had been seamless, and all the backup equipment in the centre, were top notch.
The official further lauded the board for efforts put in place to improve the conduct of the examination nationwide, every year.
“As I speak, the board has improved technical facilities such as the Funtronic Scanner for thumb printing.
“With this equipment, you hardly have incidents of inability to capture the finger print of any candidate. It is indeed, a plus for JAMB,” she stated.
Another official at the Wisdom House, which also houses two centres, told NAN that late coming to any examination was considered as an examination malpractice.
She noted that none of the examination officials had the power to change the situation.
The official was of the view that only the Registrar had such prerogative of mercy.
According to her, the examination started at about 8:30 am, as initially, there was a technical hitch, but it was corrected almost immediately.
She said that beyond that, there had not been any other incident at her centre as at the time she was speaking.
Reacting to the plight of the candidates that missed the examination as a result of the rain, Dr Fabian Benjamin, JAMB’s Head, Protocol and Public Affairs Officer, expressed sadness at the development.
“It is unfortunate this has happened. However, technical consideration will not allow us to reschedule the examination.
“If for instance, something happened to a centre as a whole, or there is a technical collapse in a centre, that one is understandable and the board, could start considering a way out of it.
“But a situation where some candidates for the examination at a specific schedule attempted the examination, while others failed to, for whatever reason, that examination will not be rescheduled.
“We do not reschedule examination, it has come and gone. There are rules guiding all examinations; ours is not an exception,” Benjamin said.
The UTME, which started on Monday, will run until May 14, with several sessions daily at the accredited centres.
JAMB tasks officials on guidelines as 2022 UTME begins nationwide
Meanwhile, the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) on Friday had tasked its officials to adhere strictly to its guidelines as the 2022 exercise begins for over 1.7 million candidates nationwide.
The board gave the directive in its Weekly Bulletin of the Office of the Registrar in Abuja.
It stated that biometric verification would be the only mode for admittance of candidates into the examination centre.
The board said strict adherence to this directive was required by all involved.
JAMB had reiterated that all candidates would be checked into the examination hall, using the Biometric Verification Machine (BVM) which would also serve as a register of attendance, in line with its policy.
It urged officials to ensure no candidate was kept waiting if he or she could not be verified, but to ensure such candidate was recaptured at the centre before leaving.
The board further stated that only genuine cases would be subsequently treated in cases of biometric hitch.
JAMB also urged its officials to ensure that all report forms provided for the exercise were accurately filled and completed.
It explained that the information gathered from the forms was expected to assist the board in “establishing happenings during the examination for reference purposes as well as serve as evidence for punitive measures.”
The board said it would continue to consult with critical stakeholders, including technical officers and Advisors, Resident Monitors, Supervisors and its eight monitoring groups, to deliver a hitch-free exercise.
The board’s exercise had since been scheduled to begin from Friday to May 16 in its 757 centres nationwide.
JAMB had also warned its candidates that the ban on prohibited items was still in force and necessary sanctions would be meted out to violators of its code of conduct.
“The list of the banned items within the examination hall include but not limited to flash drives, smart watches, calculators, recorders, mobile phones, spy reading glasses, jewelleries, among others,” JAMB said.
Faulty biometric forces UTME’s postponement in EKSU CBT centre
Meanwhile, the first batch of Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) at Ekiti State University (EKSU) CBT centre in Ado-Ekiti was, on Friday, postponed indefinitely due to faulty biometric system.
A correspondent, who monitored the exercise across the 12 centres in the state, reports that the development left some of the affected candidates stranded for hours.
As at 11:00 a.m. when NAN visited the centre, the first batch of the candidates, scheduled to begin their examination by 7:00 a.m., had yet to be cleared through the biometric, as the system was malfunctioning.
The development also created altercation between UTME officials, particularly the State Chief External Examiner of UTME, Mrs Smaranda Olarinde, who was on monitoring visit to the centre and some aggrieved parents of the candidates.
Some of the parents, who spoke on condition of anonymity, claimed that they had arrived the state a day earlier with their children and that they had been at the centre as early as 6:00 a.m. only to be confronted with the biometric issue.
The parents, who expressed dissatisfaction with the conduct of the examination at the centre, said that the security situation in the country forced them to accompany their children to the centre for the examination.
A candidate, Gideon Adejuyigbe, expressed disappointment with the indefinite rescheduling of the examination.
Adejuyigbe said that the situation had further been compounded by the fact that some of the candidates were expected to commence their West Africa School Certificate Examination (WASCE) in a few days’ time.
The second batch of candidates at the centre was later cleared through the biometric to undertake their examinations at about 1:00 p.m.
Olarinde said that the clearance was made possible due to the efforts of the JAMB technical personnel in the state.
Addressing the affected candidates, the JAMB official said that their examinations had been rescheduled and asked them to always check their profile portals for information on the new date.
“We have been working round the clock to ensure that the technical problem is resolved but as it is now, your examination will be rescheduled.
“Candidates for the second batch are already in the hall and they will be followed by the third batch. So I want to implore you to be patient and always check on your profile portals from now on for developments on the examination,” she said.
Earlier, the JAMB Coordinator in the state, Alhaji Akeem Alaaya, said that the exercise recorded significant improvement over the previous ones.
“In a situation where you have only two or three candidates being absent out of 200 in a centre, I think it’s 95 per cent improvement compare with the previous exercises where more than 20 candidates could be absence in a centre.
Alaaya also expressed satisfaction with the general conduct of the candidates, especially as regards compliance with the laid down rules and regulations.
“The candidates have been very cooperative and orderly and this is highly commendable,” he said.
Other centres visited included: JAMB Ekiti office centre on New Iyin Road, Ado-Ekiti, Afe Babalola CBT Centre, Federal Polytechnic, Ado-Ekiti Centre and Federal University, Oye-Ekiti centre, amongst others.
