I Can’t Promise a Hitch-Free Examination- JAMB Boss

The management of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has revealed that almost 2 million candidates are expected to sit 2017 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination this April.

This was disclosed at the examination body’s Information and Communication Technology retreat held at the Obasanjo Presidential Library Complex, Abeokuta.

At the retreat, which involved civil society groups and students, The Registrar, Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, said JAMB aimed to increase the capacity of its Computer-Based Test centres in order to make the April examination seamless, noting that CBT has come to stay and about four countries were interested in observing Nigeria’s model for running the examination.

He said, “We are expecting 1.7 million candidates to sit JAMB this year and we want to make sure we satisfy these candidates within a week or thereabout.

“That is why we are increasing the capacity of the Computer-Based Test centres to be able to examine more candidates within a given date.

“I must be frank with you, I cannot promise a hitch- free examination because we are testing certain things.

“We are changing certain things. We want to question the status quo and of course, we expect a fight back by interest that will be trampled upon.

“We are going to be as sincere as possible in the direction we are going. We are going to be as flexible as humanly possible. We are not promising a hitch-free examination.

“We envisaged that there will be hitches here and there, but they will not be insurmountable. Rather than promising the nation a hitch-free examination, we will be promising a direction we will all be pleased with.

“We are creating some ICT facilities and we want our stakeholders, prospective candidates, respected scholars, institutions, civil societies to come together and critique what we are doing so that we can be sure before we go too far in a wrong direction.

“This is with a view to harvesting good ideas that could improve what we are doing.”