JAMB: CBT centre operators beg for time as UTME 2018 begins Friday

The operators of Computer-Based Test (CBT) centres, have appealed to the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), to give them a reasonable timeline to factor in its technical capacity in readiness for the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), which begins this Friday.

Speaking under the aegis of The CBT Centre Proprietors Association of Nigeria, they expressed concern about the marching order given by JAMB to the CBT centre owners to download the board’s software on Sunday.

The Chairman of the association, Alexander Ogedengbe, speaking to journalists at the end of its one-day seminar on JAMB UTME 2018 ethics, metrics and technicalities, said “we will want them to be aware that the time they mandated us to go and download the browser to use for the examination was very short.

“It was less than 24 hours to the mock exam on Sunday morning. There are many people that had to go to church on that day. Because we had to build this country, we obeyed and went to the centre, we believe that in that area, JAMB should be able to improve and give us reasonable time to get it done.”

Ogedengbe stated that for that kind of exercise, the board should have considered the de-merits as well.

“They ought to co-opt two of our own technical teams into their own so that while they are trying to look at the advantages, they are also looking at the disadvantages to us. The JAMB browser didn’t function at our centre.

“Last year, after the examination, we believed that we had done our own part very well but JAMB authority came up to say that it was marred by malpractices but the observers adjudged the exam to be malpractice free, so we had to organise the enlightenment programme among ourselves.

“We are convinced because the people here are men of integrity who want to contribute their quota to the education development of the country. As operators of CBT, we need to be up and doing through professional ethics of the exam and in the area of technicalities to make it corruption free in Nigeria.”

Candidates have already begun receiving their centres online and via email .