Former Minister of State for Education Prof. Jerry Agada, has urged the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) to review its Computer-Based Test (CBT) to eliminate setbacks.
Agada made the call in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Monday in Abuja.
He was speaking against the backdrop of protests against the alleged irregularities in the examination results of candidates of the just concluded Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).
It will be recalled that after the CBT, which was written on the 27th of February, it was reported that some candidates had 40 marks added while others had 40 marks deducted from their original scores.
This scenario prompted a large number of candidates alongside their parents, to demand for the resignation of the Registrar of JAMB, Prof. Dibu Ojerinde.
Agada, therefore, urged JAMB to improve on the modalities adopted during the just concluded CBT to make it more credible in the years ahead.
“The first time the CBT was introduced; JAMB received some encomium from people that it was an improvement of what they were doing before.
“It is unfortunate that this particular time around that things went the way it went. I want to believe that in an attempt to make things better it started getting bad.
“So, JAMB was trying to continue to improve on what they were doing and in the course of that continuation I think things went the way it did this time around.
“My own belief is that JAMB should examine their processes again, look at what they have done this year that brought about this controversy more than it used to be.
“Either they try to do some retracing of their steps or adopting some more important steps to make sure things are improved because the truth of the matter is that there are lots of complaints over this their exam that has just be finished.’’
On the call for JAMB to revert to the old system where candidates only used pencil and paper to answer objective questions during the examination, the former minister said it would be better for the board to focus on correcting its past mistakes.
“I don’t want to believe that thing went the way it went this time around they should go back.
“Our people have a proverb that if goat chops grass once they should cut off the ear.
“So, I believe that instead of saying let JAMB go back as people are protesting. No! There are ways to improve on the way things were done this year.’’
NAN
Join our twitter community :
