The Federal Government has expressed satisfaction with the smooth conduct of the ongoing Unified Tertiary Matriculations Examination organised nationwide by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB).
Permanent Secretary, Arc Sonny Echono, who monitored the exercise in some Computer Based Test Centres (CBT) in Abuja, in the company of the Registrar of JAMB, Professor Ishaq Oloyede, said from the reports so far, the exercise has been going on smoothly across the nation.
Speaking with newsmen at a different occasion on Tuesday, Echono, however, said the government was concerned about the low carrying capacity of Nigerian universities and is working on expanding access to university education in the country.
He said it was not palatable that when over 1.7 million candidates sit for an examination, only about 600,000 could be offered admission into the available spaces in tertiary instructions in Nigeria.
He added that this lack of space has been responsible for mass exodus of young Nigerians to study in mushroom universities in the neighbouring countries.
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According to him, some of these universities were established targeting students from Nigeria, noting that such institutions were never recognised in their host countries with some of them reducing the duration of course of study to about two years for a degree programme.
Echono while fielding questions from newsmen after monitoring the examination at the Global Distance Learning Institute, Abuja, said he was delighted that every year new innovations are introduced in the conduct of the examination, especially innovative technology to tackle examination malpractice as well as simplify the process for the candidates.
He said: “We are improving each time; this year, we have some innovations. At the point of your going in to take the examination, they take your biometric and it is the only basis for which your questions can be activated on the computer.
“Everything is moving smoothly, as you can see, the candidates have also adjusted to the CBT test system and we have people like Professor Oloyede whose integrity and commitment is leading this process.
“The added advantage of this is that we are also transforming and digitising our educational system,” he said.
The Permanent Secretary noted that from reports received across the nation, there have been minimal hitches, saying “everything is moving smoothly” and that the examination is programmed in such a manner that candidates were able to access them easily.
He expressed optimism that very soon universities would drop the idea of post-UTME because of the credibility of the JAMB exercise.
Meanwhile, the Joint Admissions and Metrication Board has insisted that it would not reschedule candidates who missed their examination or arrive late at the examination venue.
Spokesman of JAMB, Dr Fabian Benjamin, made this known on Tuesday in Abuja while reacting to some candidates who were barred from the examination hall having arrived about 30 minutes late at their examination venue.
He explained that the examination is programmed in such a way that candidates were expected to be at the venue at least 30 minutes to the time in order to undergo the screening processes including biometric verification.
Benjamin, said once the biometric verification is concluded and examination commenced, the JAMB staff doing the verification immediately pushes the biometric to the Board’s headquarters and as such, any candidate coming late is automatically shut out of the examination.
According to him, even if such a person is allowed into the hall, there would be no questions for him or her to answer because without the biometric questions could not be activated for a candidate.
He admitted there were some minor challenges here and there but that effective mechanisms had been in place to promptly rectify such issues.
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