JAMB’s Registrar, Professor Dibu Ojerinde, announced the deadline at the sensitization programme on CBT organized at the Federal University of Technology, Akure, for secondary school students. Ojerinde said that CBT was the key and it was the way to go now; adding that “Things are changing, if you don’t change, you will be changed”.
Hitherto, university matriculation examinations (UMEs) were often marked by examination irregularities, delay in the release of UME results, cases of missing results and multiple admissions for some candidates. Because of the several technical challenges that bedevilled JAMB at one time, its UME results lost credibility, prompting the introduction of post-UME screening tests for candidates.
However, JAMB has recently redeemed itself somewhat by curing itself of most of the lapses. The timely release of UTME results within ten days from the date of the examination is a record that other testing institutions aspire to achieve. Similarly, JAMB’s efforts at detecting and fighting examination malpractice have proved to be effective. In the 2013 UTME, the result of over 68,000 candidates were withheld for further scrutiny to ascertain their culpability for alleged malpractices.
JAMB has certain done well in recent years, particularly in the smooth conduct of UTMEs and prompt release of results. But its decision to begin CBT for all candidates by 2015 is pre-mature. With the current state of infrastructure in the country, such a decision is but a pipedream for now. A situation in which most schools lack basic learning facilities, including laboratory equipment and up-to-date library materials, it is overly ambitious to expect schools to have enough computers for giving students basic literacy n ICT. Principals of many schools do not have even one desktop in their offices, that is assuming that they themselves are computer literate.
The greatest challenge that would make JAMB’s decision unworkable is electricity supply. With the very unstable supply from the public power utility company in nearly all parts of the country, it is not clear how JAMB, under this deplorable power situation, would successfully implement the new policy. Schools situated in and villages would be shut out of the CBT more than those within towns and cities. Apart from the power outage that is more critical in villages, internet coverage is another major challenge in the hinterland. Very many villages which schools serve as centres for the UTMEs are yet to be covered by the telephone networks.
In a country without reasonable safety of its cyberspace, it would be dangerous to embark on a programme like CBT, which largely depends on the use of the internet. The Minister of Information Labaran Maku recently announced that the official website of the federal government was hacked by fraudsters. In the prevailing circumstance of unsecured cyberspace, test items (i.e. questions) of the UTME would have filtered out to millions of smart phones and tablets through social networking sites.
Although Nigeria cannot isolate itself from world of ICT, it should be acknowledged that the country presently is woefully not ready to undertake such programme. This notwithstanding, paper and pencil test still exists even in the technologically-advanced world, and is in use because of the purposes it serves. It is not for nothing that some organizations, in both public and private sectors, demand and insist on handwritten applications from applicants seeking employment. The way to proceed is to continue with the paper and pencil mode of testing until such a time the infrastructural realities of the country become favourable for.
