Nahimah Ajikanle Nurudeen
The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has said it would watch the recordings of proceedings of the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) in its Closed Circuit Camera Televisions (CCTVs) it installed in all the centres where the examination took place.
JAMB has installed the CCTVs to curb examination malpractices in the conduct of the just concluded UTME.
JAMB’s Head of Media and Information, Dr Fabian Benjamin, said in a statement on Sunday in Lagos that the board’s decision to watch the CCTV recordings is to enable it to detect where examination malpractices were actually perpetrated.
According to Benjamin, where there is any semblance of irregularities, the board will not hesitate to do sanction the cheats.
“Those who know they were involved in any acts inimical to our examination ethics should not celebrate as their inglorious days of punishment will soon surface,” he said.
Benjamin debunk rumour making rounds that the national assembly has ordered it to add 40 marks to the candidates’ original marks saying such statements are mischievous.
“Again, we want to seize this opportunity to debunk messages being circulated by those who do not wish our education well that the Senate has passed a bill urging the board to add extra 40 marks to candidates. There is no bill anywhere, not even a motion has been tabled before the two chambers of the National Assembly on the board’s 2017 UTME performance,” he said.
“The board wants to state for the umpteenth time that our examination is not a ‘fail pass’ examination; it is a selection examination, so, it can never be said that there is mass failure. It will be absolutely wrong for mischief makers to begin to analyse an examination that has just been concluded without even looking at the overall result.
The Board also urged candidates to disregard any connotations online on their results as it said that it will not do all that has been speculated online by mischief makers.
“We urge candidates to disregard all funny connotations online on their results as the board will not contemplate doing all that is being speculated as that will negate the ethics of an examination body as critical as JAMB, he said.
According to him, the board’s major concern had always been to ensure that cheating during and after examination were reduced to zero level, and this, he said, the board had substantially achieved.
It also noted that in order to ensure that the 2017 UTME met international best standards of transparency, the Registrar had constituted a taskforce with the mandate to examine the entire conduct of the examination
The statement said the taskforce was expected to look at the fortification processes done by the board, identify areas of loopholes in various centres if any and consider cases that would require urgent action, especially those involving candidates.
According to the statement, the taskforce is also expected to investigate malpractice cases and recommend likely sanctions in accordance with the provisions of the Examination Malpractice Act.
“One of the likely benefits of this taskforce which has renowned scholars and management staff is to ensure that it identified challenges to be addressed so that they don’t occur subsequently.
“The board is determined to ensure equity and fairness to all candidates and will not hesitate to allow the weight of the law to deal with whoever is involved in any infraction,’’ it said.
