THE Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board on Wednesday announced that the earlier postponed Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), novel mock examination will now hold on Saturday, 29th April, 2017.
JAMB Registrar and Chief Executive, Professor Ishaq Oloyede, made this known at the training of examination officials held at International Conference Centre (ICC), Abuja.
He, however, vowed to step on toes if those bent on sabotaging the real efforts of the Board in conducting a hitch-free and efficient examination do not halt their activities, saying he was not appointed to give excuses but to deliver.
Oloyede, had a few weeks ago, while announcing the postponement of the UTME mock examination, which was earlier scheduled to hold on Saturday April 8, said this was as a result of failure from a Board’s technical partner.
The JAMB boss revealed that the Board had last Monday conducted a semi-mock examination as part of trial testing of the technology in 10 of the Computer Based Test centres across the country and that the result was 99 per cent success.
He said this has given the Board impetus to reschedule the mock examination for this Saturday, disclosing that the Board has gathered resource persons, both internal and external, who would be sent to the 633 examination centres across the country to trial test “our new vehicle, the new technology as far as Nigeria is concerned in terms of examination delivery”.
He maintained that the mock examination was free for all the UTME candidates and that contrary to some media reports that JAMB collected money from candidates for the mock test, the Board had magnanimously undertook to pay the cost for the mock to all the accredited Computer Based Test (CBT) centres owned by both private and public institutions.
“JAMB went further to say that the Board would pay the CBT Centre owners from our own resources for the use for the mock examination. JAMB owns less than 20 of the CBT Centres out of the 633 that we are going to use. They are owned by both private and public institutions and we said we are going to pay them,” he said.
Oloyede, said the Board has done its best, taking efficiency as the watchword, to give Nigeria and the people the best, adding that what the Board has been trying to do was to avoid waste while also ensuring that Nigeria was not made inferior in the comity of examination bodies.
He said: “What we are trying to do is to find the most efficient way of conducting our examination. Yes, many people have argued that there were so many variables that you cannot determine the outcome, but I have faith in this country. And I believe that whatever can work in a normal place can work in Nigeria.
“We in the Board, have done our best and adequately prepared and we also believe in our partners, MTN and Artel, the two service providers that are our partners in the conduct of this examination. I want to appeal to them that we should see the examination as a national assignment.
“Some people genuinely or mischievously accused us of incompetence, poor planning, and so many allegations, I believe are not true. But what we are out to do is to give the best of our services to this great nation of ours.
“I need not be the Registrar of JAMB if there would be no change positively. I believe that I have something to offer and I will do the best to give the most sincere service to this great nation of ours.
“Many of you may not know that when you talk about Computer Based Test in Nigeria, there is no way University of Ilorin would not be mentioned, because that was where it started in 2007. By God’s grace, I was the Vice Chancellor, who started it.
“I’m conscious about the fact that between 2007 and now, technology has moved to a more efficient way; that instead of spending billions on our examination, we can spend millions and achieve better result. What we are trying to do is to ensure that instead of collecting N7 billion and spending N6.8 billion on our examination, we should be able to save at least N5 billion from what is collect,” he said.
Oloyede, reiterated that he considers the nation first and that all those who think that the path of honour the Board was taking would cause financial misfortune to them, “I have nothing but apology for them”.
He noted that the gathering was about 1600 people, including those invited from various institutions, states and technical partners to help the Board because JAMB could not do it all alone.
He warned that where any of the service providers believes that the Board could be held to ransom, such act of sabotage would not be condoned.
“It is only those that want to continue to extort the country that we have said no to. I believe that these are people that their toes are so big, but I don’t mind stepping on such toes. At the end of the day, Nigerians will know the truth; they will know who to appreciate and who to condemn,” he said.
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