UTME 2019: JAMB Delists 76 CBT Centres, See Why

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), says it has delisted 76 Computer-Based Test Centres (CBT) for various infractions during the 2019 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).

Naija News reports that JAMB Registrar, Prof. Is-haq Oloyede, disclosed this on Friday in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital while speaking on ‘Admissions into tertiary educational institutions in Nigeria’ at the 23rd annual seminar of the Nigerian Academy of Education.

This online news platform understands that the development has raised fears that results from those centres may be cancelled.

The JAMB Registrar narrated how its Closed Circuit Television Cameras caught exam cheats in some CBT centres, saying professional writers hid in toilets and later replaced the UTME candidates who pretended they went to the toilet to ease themselves.

His words: “When we were watching the clips, we called our staff to come and answer questions. These were clips of people, our own staff, who did what was not right. It (malpractice) is not just a matter of the past, it is still present.

“We see a lot. But we have problems. If I were to be punishing every member of staff of JAMB that is committing infractions, I will not focus on the assignment. I will be going from one disciplinary committee to the other and my attention will be diverted.

“Today, we have no fewer than 100 in police cells across the country who were caught for examination malpractices. I have appointed a Senior Advocate of Nigeria who is a former solicitor-general to help me oversee all these so that the suspects can be brought to book. My director of legal matters asked me, ‘what offences should we charge these people for; for multiple registrations?’ And I said, why can’t we go to the Examination Malpractice Act? So, my problem has started by having to draft the charges, despite the fact that we have evidence against them.”

Oloyede noted that the 76 delisted centres in 2019 were from a total of 741 registered centres, as against 22 delisted centres among 630 registered centres in 2018.

The registrar added, “Another thing we saw was malpractices by substitution. A candidate did biometric verification and came into the hall but a professional writer or mercenary had hidden in the toilet. So the candidate would now stand up and said he or she was going to the toilet, only for the professional writer to come back from the toilet and replace him or her.

“The real candidate will remain in the toilet. So our CCTV watchers from Abuja caught that and said the person who went to the toilet was not the same person who came back. And we quickly had to call the security operatives to pick up that person. And they are saying I am a witch. They don’t know that it is technology that is aiding us.”