The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board-organised
examination began in some 750 accredited centres nationwide, with 1.7 million
candidates registered to participate.
In centres monitored in Lagos and Ogun, candidates scheduled
for the first session at 7am were mostly affected by system glitch and
downpour.
One of the candidates in Ogun lamented that over 200 of them
were unable to write the annual exam because of technical issues.
The candidate, Oba Timilehin, said he arrived early at his
centre at Mountain Top University in the Abeokuta South Local Government Area
of Ogun State but was unable to sit for the examination.
He said, “The first batch which was supposed to start at 7am
ate into our time. Eventually, when we, the second batch, wanted to start
around 10am, the officials said the network was bad and we couldn’t sit for the
exam.
“The centre said the problem was from JAMB and the whole
thing was disrupted. My batch had up to 240 candidates and we all missed the
paper.”
Also, a parent of one of the candidates who couldn’t sit for
the examination due to technical challenges told our correspondent that some
frustrated parents threatened to burn down the centre.
He said, “Candidates wept profusely having missed one full
year already. They were devastated. The same thing happened last year and they
had to wait for a full year. Now, this happened in 2022.
Also, according to the News Agency of Nigeria, at the WAEC
Test and Training Centre, one of the accredited centres for the examination in
the Ogba area of Lagos, a group of candidates were seen desperately seeking
help after having missed the test.
The same situation also applied at the Wisdom House Centre,
off Yaya Abatan, also in Ogba, Command Secondary School Ipaja and Lagooz
Schools Orile-Agege centres.
Other centres visited by NAN are Timeon Kairos Polytechnic
and Professional Institute, Ile-Epo, along the Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway.
NAN reports that despite the downpour, however, many
candidates, accompanied by their parents, still turned up as early as 6am to
beat the examination time in centres visited.
One of the centre supervisors at the WTTC who did not want
her name in print told NAN that the examination began at exactly 8:30am.
“We were actually supposed to start the examination by 8am
but because of the rain, we had to give 30 minutes grace.
“We have over 240 candidates each, in both the centre one
and two, out of the 250 capacity benchmark for each of these centres,” she
said.
Reacting to the plight of the candidates that missed the
examination as a result of the rain, JAMB’s spokesman, Dr Fabian Benjamin said,
“It is unfortunate this has happened. However, technical considerations will
not allow us to reschedule the examination.
“If for instance, something happened to a centre as a whole,
or there is a technical collapse in a centre, that one is understandable and
the board, could start considering a way out of it.
“But a situation where some candidates for the examination
at a specific schedule attempted the examination, while others failed to, for
whatever reason, that examination will not be rescheduled.
“We do not reschedule examination, it has come and gone.
There are rules guiding all examinations; ours is not an exception,” Benjamin
said.
The UTME, which started on Monday, will run until May 14,
with several sessions daily at the accredited centres.
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