Stressful 2017 UTME registration
Candidates and their parents all over the country are bitterly complaining about the stress, fatigue and risks associated with registration for the 2017/2018 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), which began on Monday March 20, 2017 and is to last three weeks. There are three main stages of the registration. First, a candidate goes to a […]
Candidates and their parents all over the country are bitterly complaining about the stress, fatigue and risks associated with registration for the 2017/2018 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), which began on Monday March 20, 2017 and is to last three weeks. There are three main stages of the registration. First, a candidate goes to a cyber café and creates a profile on the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board’s (JAMB) official website, using an active personal email address. Next, the candidate goes to a bank and pays for the online form, after which a Personal Identification Number (PIN) is generated and issued to the candidate. JAMB abolished the use of scratch-cards for this year’s UTME registration. The third and final stage requires the candidate to go to a Computer-Based Test (CBT) for biometric capture. JAMB said these new procedures were introduced to check the activities of fraudsters.
Candidates have described this year’s exercise as very slow, cumbersome and very stressful. The second and third stages are especially stressful. Young boys and girls remain under the scorching sun for long hours as the queues extend from banking halls to adjourning streets. It takes a candidate an average of four days to pay for and obtain a PIN at the bank. Banks and JAMB blame each other for the difficulties. Samuel Umuru, Head of JAMB’s Makurdi office blamed banks for the delay but Simeon Isimishere, Zenith Bank’s Operations Manager in Makurdi said JAMB is to blame for the delays because it is solely responsible for generating PINs. Banks only issue the PINs given to them by JAMB to candidates, Isimishere said.
Candidates complain of the gross inadequacy of CBT centers in most states. Most CBT centers are overcrowded and many LGAs do not have them, forcing candidates to travel to other towns for the registration exercise. Candidates go to CBT as early as 5am and often stay there till 11pm. It takes up to five days for a candidate to take his turn. Candidates complain of slow speed of internet services at CBT centers. Low-level computer literacy among secondary school students also militates against the enforcement of minimum standard set by JAMB for UTME candidates. Four years after the CBT mode of testing was introduced in 2013, many candidates are not computer or CBT-literate.
JAMB Registrar Professor Ishaq Olanrewaju Oloyede said in Kaduna last week that the board has resolved to abolish the CBT mode due to low computer literacy level of candidates across the country. Oloyede said the board will now adopt an 8-key device which will eliminate the challenge of computer literacy as well as phobia for the use of mouse by some candidates. Without using the mouse, candidates will write UTME by pressing A, B, C or D for responses to questions as well as press P, N, S and R keys which respectively represent Previous question, Next question, Submit and Reverse. For the same reason, JAMB is introducing, from this year, a mock UTME where candidates can interact with the computer before the UTME proper. Candidates and their teachers from remote parts of the country may never have interacted with computers. But the option of 8-key device may rather compound the problem.
We urge JAMB to approve more CBT centers across the country to enable eligible candidates complete their registration within the stipulated period. As a long term measure, government should also be more committed to implementation of educational policies. Although computer science is a core subject at the basic education level, that is yet to reflect in the computer literacy level of students. If the CBT mode of UTME constitutes a disadvantage to candidates, graduation from the Paper-Pencil Test (PPT) mode to CBT should be done gradually and in accordance with the country’s infrastructural capacity. A deadline that allows the use of dual modes could be set, after which CBT shall remain the only mode of UTME.