UTME candidates

A committee of the House of Representatives has thrown its weight behind the Computer-Based Test (CBT) mode of examination, conducted by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB).

An excited JAMB  management, under attacks by some critics, announcement the support in a statement signed by its Head of Media and Information, Dr Fabian Benjamin.

Benjamin quoted the lawmakers as saying that the use of computers for the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) was in tandem with government’s drive to sanitise the education sector.

“We the members of the House Committe on Basic Education have thrown our weight to the Computer-Based Test.

“We are convinced that the platform is in tandem with global best practices,” Benjamin said in the statement.

He said that the Chairman of the House Committee on Basic Education, Mr Zakari Muhammed, in company of some members of the committee made the statement during a fact-finding visit to the CBT centre in Bwari, Abuja.

According to the spokesman, the centre is one of the centres used for the candidates sitting for the re-scheduled UTME.

Benjamin noted that the re-scheduled examination was in accordance with the board’s promise to Nigerians that it would ensure that candidates who missed the 2016 UTME due to relocation of their centres were given fresh opportunity.

He said that the UTME, which was rescheduled for March 23 had been conducted in some states in the country.

According to Benjamin, when asked whether the house is contradicting its earlier stand on the CBT, Muhammed said the lawmakers have never taken a position on the CBT.

He quoted the committee chairman as explaining that the Paper Pencil Test was cumbersome and characterised by irregularities and unwholesome activities.

Benjamin said that candidates, who wrote the examination outside Nigeria were also leveraging on the flexibility of the CBT.

“Today, these candidates some of whom are sick are writing a rescheduled examination, but for the flexibility of CBT they would not have had this opportunity.’’

The mage-maker said, however, that the house called on JAMB to identify and address the hitches, describing the CBT as the way forward.

According to him, the house has pledged to support JAMB to put infrastructure in place to see that examinations are stress-free in future.