The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has directed all Computer-Based Test centre owners to arrest any parent, who is found near any of their facilities during the 2024 UTME exercise.
The body said all arrangements have been concluded for the
conduct of the 2024 UTME, which will be held in over 700 CBT centres across the
nation.
The directive was issued at the final briefing of the
Computer-Based Test Centre owners, which was held virtually on Wednesday, 17th
April 2024 a transcript of which was obtained by our correspondent on Thursday
in Abuja.
The board said the directive became necessary following the
intrusive disposition of some parents during the Board’s previous exercises.
According to the Registrar, Prof. Is-haq Oloyede, “Any
parent, who disobeys this order, would not only be arrested but his ward would
also be disqualified from sitting the examination.
“This measure is necessary as it has been discovered over
time that many of these intruding parents are facilitators of examination
infractions while others have, by their actions, disrupted the Board’s
examinations in the past. Some miscreants also disguise as parents to
infiltrate the centres to perpetrate all forms of infractions.”
Consequently, the Registrar disclosed that the Board has
directed security operatives to work with the centres to apprehend any
meddlesome parent, who comes near the centres.
“Some miscreants also disguise as parents to infiltrate the
centres to perpetrate all forms of infractions. Consequently, the Registrar
disclosed that the Board has directed security operatives to work with the
centres to apprehend any meddlesome parent, who come near the centres.”
The board’s helmsman noted that going by the extant national
policy on education, a candidate for the examination must have attained the age
of 17 years. Therefore, it is evident that these parents had not allowed their
wards to pass through the classes as defined in the document, hence, the
determination to follow their wards to the examination venue to compromise
examination officials.
“At any rate, it is clear to any discerning observer that
these parents deserve to be sanctioned as they had obviously ‘smuggled’
underage children into the ranks of those scheduled to sit the examination,”
Oloyede said.
The board also availed itself of the opportunity provided by
the meeting to advise candidates to jealously guard their details, e-mail
address, as well as their registration and phone numbers.
This advice is issued against the backdrop of some
candidates, who might be enticed into patronising any of those fraudulent
websites out there. Consequently, the Board informed candidates that if their
details were found with any of such sites, they would be treated as accomplices
and prosecuted.
He disclosed that the Board expects a seamless exercise but
it has nevertheless made adequate provision to tackle any technical glitch that
might occur in the course of the examination.
He, however, warned that if a session experienced any
technical challenge, candidates in subsequent sessions would be allowed to sit
their examination as scheduled while the candidates in the challenged session
would be rescheduled for the last session for the day or the following day or
even further depending on the centre schedules. Candidates are to take note of
this so that they will remain calm in the event of any disruption. In this
wise, any candidate or parent, who disrupts any subsequent session on account
of the failure of his/her session, would be disqualified outright from taking
the examination.
Furthermore, Oloyede appealed to centre owners to consider
the assignment as a national engagement and not as a purely profit venture. He
urged them to expose the bad eggs among them.
The Registrar recalled that hitherto, CBT centres were
allowed to register Direct Entry candidates but this practice was discontinued
owing to the predilection of some of them to engage in fraudulent acts despite
the many opportunities that the Board had created for them, especially by
ensuring that other agencies patronise them. He, therefore, enjoined centre
owners to eschew unwholesome acts or risk losing vital opportunities.
He expressed shock over multiple intelligence showing how
the CBT centres have been making efforts to compromise the Board’s staff,
especially with the offer of accommodation. He asked why they would want to do
that when they constantly complain that what is paid them is not enough. He
said the centres should not hesitate to expose any staff, who ask for such
favours as the Board had sufficiently paid its staff for the exercise in line
with government regulations adding that any centre which persists in doing so,
might have something to hide.
The Registrar informed the participants that the Board had
deployed state-of-the-art technologies to check all manners of infractions,
collaborations and other unsavoury acts that are at variance with its code of
operations.
0 comments:
Post a Comment