The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board
on Friday said the board would reschedule
examination for candidates who missed the
Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination
because of relocation of centres by the board.
The board said it relocated 59,000 candidates
in 15 states because of problems in some of
the centres.
It also said candidates who had system failure
during the examination would retake it, if the
board finds their complaint to be genuine.
The Registrar of the board, Prof. Dibu Ojerinde,
who said this at a press conference in Abuja,
added that the new development does not
affect candidates who missed the examination
deliberately or failed in the examination.
Ojerinde said among the 1,546,633 candidates
that sat for the 2016 UTME, 145,704 had issues
of multiple results, which have been resolved
by the board.
Prof. Ojerinde added that 23,577 candidates
were absent on the day of the examination.
“We relocated candidates where the board had
challenges. The board is looking at some of
the issues raised during the examination, but
most of the excuses raised by candidates are
flimsy,” he said.
“We relocated about 59, 000 candidates due to
the problems in various centres which vary
from town to town. There are about 59,000 of
them spread across 15 states of the
federation.
“Those that were relocated never suffered any
setback or inconvenience. For all these two
sets of people, I want to apologise sincerely for
what happened to them, but we are going to
put on a redress for those whose relocation
affected them in missing their examination.
“Let me use this opportunity to offer
explanation on the issue of the much-
publicized two results. The process of our
marking involves transformation and other
qualitative programming. In the process of
these configurations, we had a little challenge
which we quickly corrected and ensured that
this never happened in subsequent results.
This challenge was only associated with the
candidates that sat for this examination on
Saturday, 27, and some candidates of Monday,
29 February, 2016.”
Prof. Ojerinde said the board found out that
some of the over 500 centres used for the CBT
was compromised by the operators.
He said that one of its centres in Uromi, Edo
State was invaded by mercenaries during the
examination.
He blamed the education consultants for
mobilizing candidates to protest against the
conduct of the examination by the board,
adding that the quality of the centres used for
UTME would not be compromised.
He said: “In our quest to have adequate and
effective centres for the exercise, we approved
over 500 centres, but unfortunately, some of
the centre operators were not sincere in
proving us with the true position of their
facilities.
“They hired equipment during the period of
accreditation and other necessary apparatus
and on the examination day, they were found
wanting. This led to relocation or rescheduling
of candidates from some of them to more
suitable centres.”
Ojerinde said Nigeria was ready to take the
CBT examination, adding that reverting to the
PPT as directed by the House of
Representatives would amount to lack of
progress.
According to him, the CBT would be improved
upon.
He said: “Even the physically challenged are
taking the CBT examination. One of the blind
candidates scored 286, so why should others
complain?
“Going back to the Paper and Pencil Test will
amount to taking one step forward and two
steps backwards.”
The Nation.

SOURCE : TheEagleOnline

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