Nigeria Student Forum

Some candidates sitting for the 2020 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, were barred from the examination hall by officials on Tuesday after they arrived late at the Computer-Based Test centre in the Central Business District.

The candidates, about 10, and their parents, who came to the Global Distance Learning Programme Institute CBT centre, were told that they would have to wait till the 2021 examination.

Some parents of the candidates, however, explained that the CBT centre address on their examination slips were not clear as they read, “Abuja, Minna, Suleja, Niger State” and other examination towns.

When the Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, Prof. Is-haq Oloyede, and the Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Education, Mr Sonny Echono, arrived at the centre, the affected parents and candidates crowded the gate.

A parent, who did not want his name in print, said, “My daughter and I arrived late because JAMB provided multiple addresses on the printed slip. Locating this Global Learning centre was difficult.”

The candidates were not willing to have their names in print in the hope that the board could consider them for another session.

But the JAMB Head of Media, Dr Fabian Benjamin, who also came to the venue with the registrar, said the candidates’ examination could not be rescheduled, as they mistook their examination centre for examination towns provided only as a guide.

Echono after inspecting the exercise, said, “Everything is moving smoothly; candidates are also adjusting to the CBT system. The added advantage of this is that we are transforming our education sector, digitalising our educational curriculum. We had minimal hitches nationwide.”