Lagos —The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, JAMB, yesterday cancelled two centres in the ongoing matriculation examination following complaints of poor facilities provided by the centres’ administrators in Lagos.

Okorie, who is coordinating the Yaba College of Technology’s Computer Based Test (CBT) examination centre, said candidates at the two centres had been relocated to another centre nearby.
She named the affected centres as Huntview Technology Limited, No. 4, Ayanboye St., Anthony village and the New Ocean Comprehensive High School, Megida, Ayobo area, Lagos. She advised candidates in the affected centres, who were yet to sit for their examinations, to report immediately to the alternative centres provided for the examination.
“We have relocated candidates from the Huntview Technology Limited, at no. 4, Ayanboye st. Anthony, Lagos to Jkk building, ETC Nigeria Limited, 229, Ikorodu road, Ilupeju.
“Also, all candidates initially posted to the New Ocean Comprehensive High School, Megida, Ayobo, were relocated to Island Computers College, 99, Meiran road, Otapo Bus-stop, Meiran, Lagos.
“We appeal to all candidates posted to these centres to relocate to the new centres immediately.
“We have stationed officers of the Nigerian Civil Defence Corps at the cancelled centre to direct candidates to the new centres”, she said.
Okorie explained that the generator at New Ocean Comprehensive High School got burnt during the first paper on Feb. 27 and destroyed some computers and cables.
“We managed it for that day but we cannot continue because we do not want any candidate to suffer or miss the examination on account of the incident.
“Many computers are not functioning properly at the Huntview Technology Limited”, she said.
The coordinator explained that prior to the examination, she had held meeting with all the CBT centre administrators in Lagos on Feb. 19, and pleaded with them to put their facilities in proper shape.
She warned that any centre with faulty router would not be able to access the questions from the JAMB server. Okorie noted that the affected centres would not be paid because they breached the agreement.
“The sanction for any centre that failed to meet the requirements is that it will forfeit agreed payment. We pay the centres after the examination”, she further explained.

JAMB: Answers not in the options – Candidates
Meantime, some candidates of the on-going Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination, UTME, said aside the lateness in starting the examination, a bigger challenge was with the English Language paper as answers to some of the questions were not made available.
Speaking to Vanguard, Miss Basirat Jerah, whose examination center was at the Yaba College of Technology, said “the examination scheduled to commerce at 6:30am started by 8:45am as a result of server failure, but the surprising aspect was that some of the questions on English Language were wrong as the answers were not in the options given. Only God knows what would become our fate as we pray JAMB officials would consider this when marking and grading us.”
Collaborating Jerah’s claims is Miss Precious Ogunlele who also wrote the exam at Yaba College of Technology, who said “Questions 11-20 of English Language were incorrect as the answers were not on the options. We only pray and hope this would be taken into consideration so as not to negatively affect our scores.”
When contacted, the Public Relations Officer, JAMB, Dr. Fabian Benjamin, said the portion in question is the comprehension part whereby they have to fill in the gaps. He said “You know these students are in a hurry to finish and most of them don’t take their time to go through the questions. Even some candidates in one of the centers I visited pointed out that to me and I had to explain to them that in comprehension, you have to fill in the gaps. I can assure you that JAMB didn’t make any mistake when setting the questions.”

bbkingZ:
why get involved in d CBT without first making available the prerequisites for the exam.... Dats like trying to withdraw wen u don't av an account

kachnov:
Well two centers isn't enough reason to condemn the entire CBT process,but they should improve.

Psalm18:


You are looking at it from the wrong perspective.
First of all they are more than two centres. Lagos and abuja are in the eye of the media and also have more enlightened parents

The hinterlands and other rural areas have similar. I will trust the reports of students in those areas who have complained but have no one to fight their case

kachnov:


You're kinda right,it will be more difficult for those in rural areas thereby making them disadvantaged students with regards to getting admission. But considering ICT advancements I think JAMB's CBT is a laudable thingy.

Psalm18:


Ict advancements is still a myth in nigeria. There is progress but not yet enough to call is advancement.
Ict goes with power. The queue are back today; centres with power failure tommorow will need fuel. Is anybody in jamb thinking of that an making arrangements.
The best thing is to do 30 percent CBT and 70 percent pbt for now.
Our young people should not be guinea pigs for testing ict advancements.

lanwrex:
What is this man saying i wrote my jamb yesterday.. I can say it anywhere .. Question 11-20.. D answers wre not dre.. D jamb representative sed we shouldn't attempt it... I ivn heard of them sending people low result only for dem to print and find out dey got way higher .. Jus lyk dey dd last year

kachnov:
Well two centers isn't enough reason to condemn the entire CBT process,but they should improve.

kachnov:


True..I have a younger one writing the jamb ..he wrote this morning and I'm yet to get feedback on his experience. We do have a long way to go,but at least the journey has started.

adeboi1991:
most centers are like dat

seunlayi:
@ the expense of those young chaps?