Fred Ezeh, Abuja
The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), on Monday, has deregister unnamed 14 privately owned Computer Based Test (CBT) centers in some parts of Nigeria for what it described as deceit and technical infractions.
The affected CBT centers were among 712 JAMB accredited CBT centers nationwide to participate in the Mock Exam and 2019 UTME exercise scheduled for next week.
The board said it realised that the affected CBT centers borrowed computer systems, during accreditation, to make up the number of required computer systems to get JAMB accreditation for the 2019 UTME exercise.
JAMB Registrar, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, announced the development in Abuja, shortly after he, alongside the Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu, and other government officials monitored the mock exam in some CBT centers in Abuja, ahead of the 2019 UTME.
He said: “Of 712 accredited CBT centers for the mock and UTME exam, we were forced to deregister 14 of them on Monday morning for one infraction or the other.
“We realised that some of the CBT centers borrowed computer systems to make up the number of computers required for accreditation. And on the exam day, the computers were not found at the CBT centers.
“Others had technical and other issues that necessitated the decision of JAMB to deregister them.”
Meanwhile, he explained that JAMB successfully redistributed the affected candidates to nearby CBT centers so they could participate in the exam.
Recall that JAMB introduced the mock exam in 2017 as optional for UTME candidates. It was an opportunity for JAMB to test its systems and acquaint candidates with the CBT test ahead of the exam.
Candidates interested in mock must have indicated interest during registration. Those that choose JAMB owned CBT centers wrote the exam at no cost while those in private CBT centers paid N700.