JAMB puts students admission at risk

REGISTRAR of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Prof. Dibu Ojerinde and his management team should not expect any understanding from aggrieved candidates and their parents over the

board’s failure to provide writing materials at many centres across the country last Saturday, during the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).

For all the confidence exuded by Ojerinde at a briefing in Abuja a few days before the examination, and all the hype about biometrics, it was disappointing that JAMB could let the candidates down, at a very critical moment and in the crudest of ways.

Take the four centres at King’s College, Lagos, for instance. Many candidates had assembled there as early as 6:30am, some with their parents. A screening was billed to take place first, to be carried out by members of the Civil Defence Corps (CDC), but no CDC member was present, for two hours, only for just one to show up at about 8:30am. Dissatisfied, the examination coordinator refused to allow the man screen 540 candidates (at each of the centres) to prevent unnecessary waste to time.

The candidates now had to be screened biometrically. That took some time too. Now, the candidates had been told to drop all their bags at the security post some distance away. They had also been told: “No calculator, no writing materials, no pencils, no pens, nothing. Just present yourself.” But they were shocked when the officials announced in various halls, just when the examination was about to start, that the consignment of writing materials did not arrive. The candidates were then asked to take a dash outside the premises and purchase pens, pencils and erasers. Panic set in. In a confused state, those who could lay their hands on calculators were allowed to use them. Thus, the idea of preventing students from using scientific calculators had failed. Some lucky candidates who had such calculators in their bags retrieved them, but many who did not come with any sat for the examination anyway.

The situation at King’s College was replicated all over Lagos State. Candidates who sat for science subjects were seriously hampered by this development. In a highly competitive selection examination like the UTME, time is of great essence. One mark could make all the difference. With a calculator, a candidate would spend far less time on particular questions. Without one, more time will be lost.