The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has sanctioned 50 Computer-based Test (CBT) centres in the country for examination malpractice.
Consequently, JAMB has delisted the cybercafes from downloading WAEC, NECO results and would not allow them to register candidates beginning from the 2019 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).
JAMB’s Registrar, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, said this on Thursday on the sideline of a meeting with proprietors of Computer-Based Test (CBT) centres at the University of Lagos.
“We are no longer going to allow the cybercafes to do the registration exercise for prospective candidates because they are extorting candidates and overcharging them.
“They also do services they do not have the capacity to do, coupled with the fact that there was no way of tracking them because they were not registered.
“Another major reason is the mix-up they create on the data of the candidates. Some will just ask the candidates to write their names and other details down for them.
“On accumulating such data, they now get all of them mixed-up, thereby creating problems for these candidates.
“We know there will be uproar because they make a lot of illegitimate money from these services, but we cannot leave the candidates at their mercy.
“Particularly when people will make noise that it is JAMB that was extorting them,’’ he said.
The professor urged all prospective candidates to do their registration and access the board’s major services in any of its 718 accredited centres in the country.
Oloyede said the board would commence the sale of the registration form on January 3, 2019 to last for six weeks.
He gave the assurance that the general elections would not affect the sale of forms, adding that the board had adjusted its examination schedule ahead of the election.
“We thank INEC for giving us an early notice and so, it is expected that the exercise will be hitch-free,’’ he said.
He told newsmen that as always the case, there were special centres for visually impaired candidates.
The registrar added that the board was already considering the introduction of a new technology for smooth conduct of the examination for such candidates.
“Next week, some of our officials will be in the United Kingdom where all the assessment bodies, who are attending to the blind, will meet.
“They will meet with a view to finding the best technology to use for these special candidates at a better price, because of the exchange rate.
“However, those with Braille machines, they are available; we will give them and those who do not have, we want to encourage them, whatever best method available to us, we will deploy because we want to be as inclusive as possible.
“That is also why we have set up a committee of experts under Prof. Peter Okebukola, to look for all-inclusive methods to be able to attend and bend it to suit the purposes of all these peculiar candidates,’’ he said.
Oloyede said that all the CBT centres must ensure that the dual screen registration process was followed strictly and ensure that candidates sign out by doing a thumb print that would ensure that data was uploaded and printed.
