2018 UTME: “Steer clear of all CBT Centres” — JAMB Registrar Warns Parents

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, JAMB has asked the parents of candidates sitting for the 2018 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination, UTME, to stay away from Computer-Based Centres.

The JAMB Registrar, Prof Is-haq Oloyede, who said this on Monday in Abuja while monitoring the Mock UTME at the Kogo and Veritas University CBT centres, noted that some parents had formed the habit of hanging around the centres to engage in examination malpractice, Punch reports.

”We urge parents to keep away from CBT centres. We are preparing people for university education, but the parents come around too often. They want their children or their wards to pass at all costs.

This practice is not helpful because they will not follow these candidates to the lecture rooms. Lecturers and others will start taking undue advantage of such parents because they are not mature.

They are not prepared for the task. I think parents should steer clear of all CBT centres and allow the children to grow,” Prof Is-haq Oloyede said.

Oloyede urged the UTME candidates to desist from cheating during the examination, as the board would monitor all the computers to be used.

In addition, he said that all electronic devices, such as phones, headsets, flash drives and other items, such as wristwatches and calculators, remained banned.

Noting that the ban on special eyeglasses and pens also applied to supervisors and examiners.

”We urge the candidates to avoid any form of malpractice or shortcut to passing the examination. You are aware that we have banned some items from going into the examination halls; we have banned special glasses, wristwatches and many other things that we are aware our candidates use for illicit activities (read here).

As the candidates are getting cleverer, the board is getting wiser. We have done everything possible to avoid the issue of logging out. When a student sees that the questions are difficult, he plays some pranks, remove some wires, pulls out the cable.

Then there is a problem. But we are going to monitor every system and if we discover that a candidate deliberately shut down a system, he will carry his cross,” the registrar added.
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Last week, the Board said the examination mode for blind candidates for the 2018 UTME was likely to be conducted by dictation, as was done in 2017.

Head, Media and Information, JAMB, Dr. Fabian Benjamin, gave the hint in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria on Thursday, February 22, in Lagos.

Dr. Benjamin was speaking against the backdrop of calls by some blind candidates in Lagos, seeking to know if they would be using the Braille Note Apex for the forthcoming Computer-Based Test, scheduled for between March 9 and 17.

“Yes, the candidates would be taking this year’s examination through the dictation mode.

This dictation would be carried out by the ‘Equal Opportunity Group,’ under the supervision of Prof. Peter Okebukola, a former Executive Secretary, National Universities Commission.

The Board is mindful of the needs of the Nigerian child and, therefore, will stop at nothing in ensuring that everyone is carried along and given equal opportunity to succeed.’’