Education

CPAN indicts JAMB registrar, says 2019 examination marred by browser failure

Funmi Lawrence

 

The Computer-Based Test Centres Proprietors’ Association of Nigeria (CPAN) has indicted the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) saying that the 2019 examination was marred by both biometric and browser failures from JAMB.

 

The President of CPAN, Mr Maxwell Akwuruoha made this known at a news conference in Abuja on Thursday.

 

Akwuruoha noted that contrary to claims by the board that the examination was a success, the 2019 examination was marred by both biometric and browser failures from JAMB as most candidates were denied the opportunity to write the examination.

 

He said that there were over 2000 candidates who could not write the 2019 UTME due to biometric and browser failures from JAMB.

 

It noted that these candidates, who purchased the forms for the examination, have been denied the opportunity to gain admission this year.

 

According to him, despite the introduction of CBT examination and biometric verification, there were JAMB workers deployed on the examination days, who were either incompetent or connived to carry out malpractices.

 

“Biometric and browser failure, incompetence of technical staff, inadequacies in CBT centres and excesses in sales of novels, syllabus and brochures are some of the technical challenges during the 2019 UTME exercise.

 

“Biometric enrollment as secured registration medium for UTME and Direct Entry candidates started in 2011, with the introduction of electronic testing actively in 2013 and absolutely in 2015.

 

” It has been that the introduction of technology as electronic testing saved huge costs, initially meant for printing question papers, syllabus, brochure, and logistics for delivery of same.

 

“It has been that only N600 is paid to centres for each candidate that sits for the examination. It has also been that JAMB applies a fire-brigade approach during accreditation, especially with ad hoc workers who are not trained.

 

“It does not kill anybody to apologise that the biometric system actually failed. We had candidates that were prevented from writing the exam because of biometric failures from JAMB.

 

“Some children were prevented from writing the examination due to biometric failure from JAMB.

 

” The system failed because some of the technical people sent to some centres by JAMB were incompetent. It is only noble that the Registrar, Prof. Is-haq Oloyede apologises to these children that were prevented from writing the examination.

 

“What we are saying is that the biometric solutions deployed by JAMB during the examination failed,” he said.

 

Akwuruoha added that such technical challenges should not be allowed to happen during the conduct of the 2020 examination.

 

He called on JAMB to issue to its members a Memorandum of Understanding and adequate time for visitation and accreditation.

 

The CPAN president also said that the association was ready to partner with the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) to enroll candidates for the 2020 UTME.

 

However, JAMB Head of Information, Fabian Benjamin, while reacting to the allegations dismissed the allegations and described them as “cheap blackmail.”

 

Benjamin said the board conducted biometric verification for about two million candidates.

 

” Let me assume, without conceding, that 2000 candidates could not be verified, what is the percentage of 2000 in two million?

 

“Every candidate that registered properly was verified. So for any candidate who was not verified, it is not as a result of biometric failure.

 

” Some of them registered in centres that were not approved and some of them did multiple registrations and they were therefore blocked.

 

“And if you talk about examination malpractice, we have been delisting centres found in such and none of them had ever come with allegations against our workers,” he said.

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