PARENTS AND
STUDENTS LODGE COMPLAINTS ABOUT JAMB 2016
The protesters demanded the
cancellation of the exams and the removal of the Registrar of the Joint
Admissions Matriculation Board, Prof. Dibu Ojerinde.
The protesters, who faulted the
conduct of the examination, described the exercise as a “big sham.”
The examination, conducted by
JAMB, they alleged, was fraught with irregularities.
The examination, which started on
February 27, will end on March 19.
While some of the candidates
alleged that the board deliberately lowered their scores, some claimed that it
arbitrarily awarded marks to many candidates.
The protesters, led by a group
under the aegis of Concerned Parents and Education Stakeholders, displayed
placards with inscriptions such as, ‘All
we are saying give us our mark’, ‘Dibu must go; the only stumbling block in
education progress’, ‘The Joint Admission and Manipulation Board, give us our
real results’, and ‘The professor of test and management has outlived his
usefulness’, among others.
The protesters, who occupied the
gate of the Lagos State House of Assembly complex for many hours, said JAMB and
its registrar had “lost focus on how to conduct a successful Computer-Based
Test in the 21st century.
A candidate, Maryam Animashaun,
who expressed disappointment with the conduct of the examination, claimed that
she received three different results from JAMB.
Animashaun, who sat for the
examination at the College of Education, Oro, Kwara State, said, “I am
confused. I do not know what to do now. The first alert I received on the
telephone from the board with regard to the examination showed that I scored
218. The second alert read 186, while the third one read 286.
“The surprising thing now is that
I cannot print any of the results. On the website, the board claimed that I did
not sit for the examination. Meanwhile, I sat for English, Government,
Economics and Literature-in-English.”
Another candidate, Kalasuwe
Adeola, who claimed she scored 220, said she obtained the same score in 2015.
She said, “I am sure JAMB did not mark this
year’s UTME. If it did, why did they issue me the same result I obtained last
year? In my printed result for this year, it was written 2015/2016 instead of
2016/2017. I sat for this year’s examination at the Bachel Model College,
Lagos, on March 9. Unlike other candidates, I did not have any issue with my
system during the examination.”
The National President of the
Association of Tutorial Schools in Nigeria, Mr. Shodunke Olutodotun, lamented
that over 10,000 candidates missed the UTME, while others had their marks
deducted due to irregularities by JAMB.
“This year’s UTME will soon be
concluded. We have a man called Prof. Dibu Ojerinde. This man has outlived his
usefulness in JAMB. He seems to be more powerful than the country’s president.
“The protesters are the victims;
their destinies are being finished by Dibu. Most of the protesters that had
their exam in Delta State had the exam in a shrine. A lot of them got results
before they sat for the exam.
“We are appealing to Governor
Akinwunmi Ambode and the Speaker, Mudashiru Obasa, to send signal to Abuja to
stop UTME. If they don’t do that, we will go to Abuja.
“How will someone sit for
Physics, Chemistry, Biology and the next thing he sees are Economics, Commerce
and Government?”
Describing the exam as a fraud, a
parent, Mr. Bunmi Elujula, urged the Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu,
to look into the complaints of the candidates urgently.
Apart from awarding arbitrary
scores to candidates, Elujula said many candidates had problems with their
systems.
He said, “Many candidates were
allocated between 40 and 60 additional marks. What are the criteria for this
arbitrariness? The strange thing is that JAMB started the CBT two years ago,
why is this year’s exam a big flop? I have not seen candidates and parents
complain this way about the exam in the past. I plead with the authorities to
look into their grievances.”
But JAMB described the organisers
of the protest as “blackmailers”.
In a statement by its Head of
Public Relations, Dr Fabian Benajmin, the board said some proprietors, whose
examination centres did not receive accreditation for the test, were behind the
protest.
The statement read in part, “The
board had approved centres provided by these individuals to be used for the
2016 exercise. Unfortunately, it could not approve those centres lacking in all
the indices needed for a successful CBT.
“These same proprietors turned
around to organise candidates to protest against our activities. We are not
perfect as an organisation, but we are working hard to ensure that Nigerian
education is better than it is. We have taken the risk to do the unthinkable so
as to change the paradigm.
“We will continue to call on
Nigerians to give us the benefits of doubt and with their collective support;
we will give them one of the best CBT globally. It is no news that the worst
CBT is far better than the best Paper and Pencil Test. At least, the era of
candidates pouring acid on JAMB officials, bolting with question papers into
the bush and all unthinkable embarrassing acts are gone.”
Apart from awarding arbitrary
scores to candidates, Elujula said many candidates had problems with their
systems.
He said, “Many candidates were
allocated between 40 and 60 additional marks. What are the criteria for this
arbitrariness? The strange thing is that JAMB started the CBT two years ago,
why is this year’s exam a big flop? I have not seen candidates and parents
complain this way about the exam in the past. I plead with the authorities to
look into their grievances.”
But JAMB described the organisers
of the protest as “blackmailers”.
In a statement by its Head of
Public Relations, Dr Fabian Benajmin, the board said some proprietors, whose
examination centres did not receive accreditation for the test, were behind the
protest.
The statement read in part, “The
board had approved centres provided by these individuals to be used for the
2016 exercise. Unfortunately, it could not approve those centres lacking in all
the indices needed for a successful CBT.
“These same proprietors turned
around to organise candidates to protest against our activities. We are not
perfect as an organisation, but we are working hard to ensure that Nigerian
education is better than it is. We have taken the risk to do the unthinkable so
as to change the paradigm.
“We will continue to call on
Nigerians to give us the benefits of doubt and with their collective support;
we will give them one of the best CBT globally. It is no news that the worst
CBT is far better than the best Paper and Pencil Test. At least, the era of
candidates pouring acid on JAMB officials, bolting with question papers into
the bush and all unthinkable embarrassing acts are gone.”