CBT format: Server failure mars UTME exams

CBT format: Server failure mars UTME exams

The postponed 2015 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination, UTME,
billed to commence yesterday, nationwide, was again marred by some
hiccups over the failure of internet servers as well as failure of the
biometric machines to capture candidates’ thumb-prints and other data at some centres.

Another controversy which emerged was the complaints raised by
candidates who registered for the UTME in Lagos State, but were
posted to neighbouring states of Osun, Ogun and Kwara to write the
examinations.

This development it was learned was as a result of shortage of
Computer-Based Test, CBT centres in Lagos State to cater for the
huge number of candidates billed to write the exams.

According to the Public Relations Officer of Joint Admission
Matriculation Board, JAMB, Mr. Benjamin Fabian, Over 1.4 million
candidates will be writing this year’s UTME across 400 CBT centres
nationwide.

According to reports from the University of Nigeria, UNN, Nsukka,
Enugu State, where the UMTE was held at the Department of
Economics, the first batch of candidates who were expected to start
the examinations did not start until at about 3.30 pm due to lack of
the internet.

Thousands of candidates who travelled from different areas to the
centre waited endlessly. JAMB officials who were on hand asked
candidates for batch two who were to write their own from 10 am to
wait so that they would not come back on Friday for the CBT.

It was however, a success story at Oko Polytechnic, Oko, Anambra
State, where the institution had earlier established a CBT centre with
about 2000 computers. The initial problems of lack of internet servers
were rectified by some JAMB officials before the first batch started.
About 24,000 candidates would write the examination in the school
during the 10 days that the test would last.

This year’s UTME was initially slated to commence on Monday, March
9, but following some logistics problems, the Joint Admission
Matriculation Board, JAMB, shifted the examination till yesterday.

However, despite the shift in date, which JAMB said was to allow it
put its house in order, Vanguard gathered from some of the centres in
Lagos, that the hitches persisted.

At the Island Computer College, XYZ Plaza, centre in the Ajah area of
Lagos, candidates who showed up at the centre as early as 7.00am,
could not begin their exams, as the College was said to be fixing its
internet server which encountered technical problems.

The delay led to agitation by the candidates and their parents who had
accompanied them to the centre. Save for the timely intervention of
some police men and JAMB officials, the centre would have been
thrown into confusion.

Similarly, at Chams City in Ikeja, the examination for the first batch
billed to commence by 8am could not start until around 9am. Efforts
by Vanguard to speak with exam officials proved abortive as none was
ready to speak to the press over the issue.

This delay, it was observed forced hundreds of candidates for the
second session to loiter around the Isaac John Street, where the
centre is located.

At the University of Lagos, UNILAG, Akoka, there were about four
candidates whose thumbprint did not match with what the exam body
had on its database.

However, since other data provided by them during registration for the
exams were correct, supervisors at the centre allowed them to be
screened based on the exemption mode. This was even as three of
the four visually impaired candidates expected to participate in the
examination yesterday, showed up.

Some parents whose children or wards registered for the examination
in Lagos State but were posted to neighbouring states to write the
examinations lamented that they had to pay more for travel and hotel
bills over alleged incompetence of JAMB.

Also, at the Certified Institute of Shipping, CIS, Magbon in Badagry,
candidates who went to the examination centre yesterday morning,
were said to still be at the hall as at 7.25pm, when an aggrieved
parent called our correspondent on telephone to complain over the
situation.

According to the parent, who simply identified herself as Mrs. Adeola,
“When the candidates arrived the exam centre this morning, they were
told that JAMB provided the centre with just 250 laptops. Of these,
only 150 were confirmed to be functional that morning. Following this
development, the candidates were divided into two batches. While the
first batch was to begin their exams by 7am, the second batch was
billed to commence by 10am.

“But as I speak with you, the first batch and the second batch neither
wrote the exams, as the JAMB officials in the centre complained that
the centre’s server had been down since morning. What is more
worrisome is that officials of this centre have failed to address the
candidates and we the parents, instead, the candidates have been
locked inside the examination hall since morning without writing the
exams.”

Adeola then urged the JAMB authorities, to cancel the examination
and fix new dates, when they (JAMB) must have completely put its
house in order.

However, reacting to the development, former Executive Secretary,
National Universities Commission, NUC, Prof. Peter Okebukola, who
lauded JAMB’s Registrar, Professor Dibu Ojerinde, for initiating the
total CBT format for the 2015 UTME, however blamed the problems
which marred the commencement of the exams in some centres on
teething logistic problems.

Okebukola said: “I am sure this must be for logistical reasons and to
ensure that candidates are best served in the most conducive
environment to conduct a computer-based test. The technology has to
be right. The security and surveillance against cheating has to be
right. The power supply has to be right. The overall ambience of the
environment has to be conducive for the candidate. To satisfy all
these conditions next door for every UTME candidate is like asking for
the moon.

“I suspect that transfer of candidates from one state to the other does
not mean moving candidates from Oyo to Borno or to Rivers. It could
mean the next contiguous state where facilities are more available.

This may just be a few kilometres, perhaps less than 10 kilometres. We
pray for journey mercies for all candidates. By the way, candidates for
some international examinations travel to Ghana from Nigeria to take
the exams in the approved centres. In all of these, every pioneering
activity comes with its challenges. If you have to wait for utopian
conditions, you will never venture into new territories.”

Also, reacting to the low number of CBT centres nationwide, placed at
400, the former NUC boss, said: “I believe these are the centres that
have met JAMB’s rigorous quality standards for now. It is important
that the standards are met and maintained so that candidates will not
use slips in the standards as excuse for their poor performance. As
more centres meet these standards in the coming years, I believe
there will be an expansion and increase in the number.”

Efforts to get in touch with JAMB’s Public Relations Officer, Mr.
Benjamin Fabian, to react to the controversies proved futile, as his
telephone lines were switched off at press time.