….risks arrest
From Fred Ezeh, Abuja
Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has confirmed that all was set for the commencement of the 2024 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), on Friday, in over 700 Computer-Based Test (CBT) centres across the nation.
JAMB spokesman, Dr. Fabian Benjamin, in a statement, on Thursday, said the Board expect a seamless exercise. Nevertheless, it has made adequate provision to tackle any unexpected technical glitch that might occur in the course of the examination.
He, however, asked that if a session experienced any technical challenge, candidates in subsequent sessions should be allowed to sit their examination as scheduled, while the candidates in the challenged session would be rescheduled for the last session for the day or the following day or even further depending on the centre schedules.
“Candidates should take note of this so that they will remain calm in the event of any disruption. In this wise, any candidate or parent, who disrupt any subsequent session on account of the failure of his/her session, would be disqualified outrightly from taking the examination,” JAMB warned.
He appealed to CBT centre owners to consider the UTME assignment as a national engagement, and not as a purely profit venture.
Meanwhile, JAMB Registrar, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, has warned parents against interfering in the activities of CBT centre operators or even getting closer to the centre for whatever reason.
JAMB said that directives have been given to the CBT centre operators to effect the arrest of any parent(s) that try to interfere in their activities for whatever reason.
“This measure is necessary as it has been discovered over time that many of these intruding parents are facilitators of examination infractions while others have, by their actions, disrupted the Board’s examinations in the past. Some miscreants also disguise as parents to infiltrate the centres to perpetrate all forms of infractions.
“Consequently, the Registrar disclosed that the Board has directed security operatives to work closely with the CBT centres to apprehend any meddlesome parent who come near the centres. Going by the extant National Policy on Education, a candidate for UTME must have attained the age of 17 years.
“Therefore, it is evident that these parents had not allowed their wards to pass through the classes as defined in the document, hence, the decision to follow them to the examination venue with the aim of compromising examination officials.
“At any rate, it is clear to any discerning observer that these parents deserve to be sanctioned as they had obviously ‘smuggled’ underage children into the ranks of those scheduled to sit the examination,” JAMB Registrar said.