Joint Administration and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has warned Owners of JAMB-accredited Computer Based Centers (CBT) nationwide that it is will no longer be ‘business as usual.”
The board said it would further step up the battle against dishonest CBT owners who connive with other unscrupulous elements to perpetrate examination crimes.
JAMB Registrar Prof Ishaq Oloyede who addressed owners of CBT centers nationwide at the Yaba College of Technology multipurpose hall Wednesday, lamented that CBT centers constituted 80 percent of the bashing the board received from the public in the last JAMB-CBT.
Said Oloyede: “We have taken some lessons from the last year’ experience and therefore introduced some measures that will further add to the integrity of the registration process and the conduct of the examination.
“Four example, we discovered last year and this year that some electronic devices such as Pens, wrist watches, were used to perpetrate exam malpractices. We are also going to introduce some detective devices to ensure that those who plan to cheat inside the examination halls are frustrated.
Going down memory lane, Oloyede said during the 2016 and 2017 exercises, the board discovered a lot of infractions from centre owners ranging from a centre registering in a particular state but moving out of the state to conduct the exam elsewhere; duplicating candidates” registration number; while others compelled candidates to thumbprint eight instead of the mandatory ten fingers, while allowing impersonators to thumbprint the remaining two fingers, among others.
With improved technology however, Oloyede is optimistic the board would nip in the bud most of the atrocities of the past.
“We will not rest ourselves. As they are planning, we are also planning not allow them to play any old tricks. We know they will come up with new tricks but we will come up with new anti-tricks.,” he said.
Oloyede said the 71 CBT centers found to be culpable during the last exercise were either suspended or banned Outright, adding that the board also went further by prosecuting some.
“Those that were suspended might still be pardoned; but for those that have been banned, we already have their records which we have sent to the Public Affairs Commission. This action, we took so as to discourage them from having anything to do with us as a body again. We know some of them might register another company and again apply for a centre from JAMB. We are dealing with them at individual level,” Oloyede said.
The professor of Islamic Studies noted that the board would install electric jammers as well as lens detectors into each centre, to demobilise gadgets such as handsets, wristwatches, chips, among others either within or around the premises of the examination centre.
He said registration would commence by the end of this month, urging would be candidates to visit the board” website, download it’s apps, syllabus and brochures so as to minimize errors they often commit during registration.
For accountability, Oloyede said all transactions from the point of purchase up to registration is cashless and seamless to guard against corruption and some of the encumbrances experienced by candidates before they eventually register.
He said the board has already registered 617 CBT Centers nationwide, noting that the board is still considering about 50 pending applications. He said the proposed mega CBT centre to be undertaken by the board to curtail exam malpractices would involve due process, urging Nigerian to exercise a little more patience.
He said each centre will be equipped with 250 computers with additional 25 as backups. Nonetheless, he warned that any centre whose system fail regardless of the number, would not be paid for that examination session. He said the backup will serve as a reservoir should any of the systems fail to work.
“Once the 250 computers can work concurrently; but in case you have exhausted your 25 (backups) and you do not have 250′ then we are not going to pay you for that session.
Oloyede also urged those craving that the JAMB charges be reduced due to poor economic situation to look elsewhere.
“I’m no longer sympathetic with the so called poor. They’ve always argued that there is poverty in the land; yet these are the same people that pay huge amount to these fraudsters to perpetrate exam fraud for them’” Oloyede concluded.
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