The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has phased out its Paper Pencil Test (PPT) mode effective from 2015 academic year. The Board which conducted its 2014 version of its examination in three modes namely Paper Pencil Test, (PPT) Computer Based Test (CBT) and Dual Based Test (DBT) said the CBT was more cost-effective and “promotes transparency”.
Registrar and Chief Executive of JAMB, Prof Dibu Ojerinde, while briefing jounalists in Abuja yesterday argued that distribution of examination question and answer sheets to various states in the federation was very challenging. He stressed that PPT enhanced examination malpractices.
Ojerinde, who spoke at the commissioning of a model Computer Based Test (CBT) centre in Kogo Bwari, said to be built at the cost of over N150million maintained: “We are not going back to PPT anymore, this is the end to PPT in the country, PPT was full of fraud, malpractice it is full of logistic problems and full of insecurity. So, we do not want to go back to it. We now have a solution with the introduction of CBT; we are forging ahead with it.” According to him, over 98 vehicles were being used by the Board to distribute examination materials to the various examination centres in the country.
This, he said, did not guarantee the security of the materials. He added that there were over 156 CBT centres, nationwide, including ten that were built by the Board. Any candidate who involves in multiple registration, Ojerinde said, would be banned for three years.
Commissioning the centre, Supervising Minister of Education, Barr. Nyesom Wike, urged other public examination bodies in the country to follow the precedence being laid by JAMB “in order to synergise the administration of public examinations in Nigeria.” The minister also pledged federal government’s assistance to complement the existing centres in the country; adding that government intended to review the educational curriculum so as to produce graduates that could create jobs and add value to the economy.
“The JAMB experience is already a model in Africa and has become a national pride which can proudly be show-cased to the world. “It is therefore necessary that the Board should do everything possible to maintain the standard already set with the introduction of CBT in large scale assessment,” the minister added.