Posted on: 12:19 Fri, 18 Mar 2016



House of Representatives directed the
Joint Admissions and Matriculation
Board (JAMB) to return to the former
pencil-paper method in conducting
examinations for candidates seeking
admission into tertiary institutions.



The House of Representative on
Thursday, March 17 directed the
Joint Admissions Matriculation
Examination, JAMB to discontinue
the Computer Based Test, CBT. The
House said “technical flaws”
recorded in the latest computer-
based Unified Tertiary
Matriculation Examination had
exposed JAMB’s lack of capacity to
handle the computer-based tests.

The House also wants the
examinations body to run both the
pencil- paper examination and CBT
for candidates who should choose
how they want to write exam.

The resolution was passed after a
lawmaker from Lagos State, Mr.
Oghene Emma-Egoh, had moved a
motion on the “conflicting” scores
of candidates who took the
examination.

He said: “The House is worried that
already, serious admission problem
is rocking the nation because JAMB
receives huge allocation from the
Federal Government, they charge
candidates all manner of fees and
majority of the candidates do not
gain admission because of the
technical hitches of the CBT.” He
cited instances of conflicting scores
which was occasioned by technical
flaws.

He said: “Foluke, the 17-year-old
girl in Ejigbo-Lagos, scored an
aggregate of 156 in the first result,
while in the result that later came
out, she had an aggregate of 196.”

Citing another instance, he said
Ibrahim Shawulu from Kogi state
who scored 399 out of 400, but in
less than 24 hours another result
surfaced reducing Shawulu’s score
to 199.

Other law makers while supporting
insisted the CBT be made optional
for the students.

The House which approved of the
motion after it was put to a voice
vote by the Speaker, Yakubu Dogara
also mandated its committee on
education to investigate the matter
and report back to the House for
further legislative input.