Only CBT centres 100% prepared, will be used for 2022 UTME…

This was recently published on the JAMB weekly bulletin on Monday, DECEMBER 13, 2021

As part of its preparations for the 2022 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination, the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has concluded all arrangements to validate and accredit centres to be used for the 2022 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination(UTME).

At the final briefing for Chief Technical Advisers, Zonal Directors, State Coordinators and Technical Officers for the accreditation of the Board’s examination centres on Wednesday, 8th December, 2021, the need for thoroughness in the conduct of the exercise was emphasised.

The final briefing, which was hosted virtually from the Board’s National Headquarters, discussed the modalities for the accreditation of centres to be used for the conduct of the 2022 UTME. 

The Registrar, Prof. Is-haq Oloyede, while declaring the meeting open, said, “The exercise is necessary so as to assess the conduct of the 2021 UTME as well as look at those areas requiring improvement.” 

The validation exercise, which would commence immediately after the modalities are defined, is to ensure, among other things, that only centres that are 100% ready would be used for the exercise in addition to giving other new ones the opportunity to showcase their capacity and be included, if found suitable, while ensuring that any centre that is lacking in terms of technical and infrastructural specifications is excluded from the exercise.

The various stakeholders to engage in this exercise were urged to ensure that all the rules guiding the validation of centres are followed to the letter without any form of sentiments or compromise. The Registrar likened the exercise to laying a foundation of a house, noting that a good foundation devoid of any shoddy practices should yield a successful and hitch-free examination. 

According to him, centre validation when done efficiently determines how good a particular year’s examination would be. He charged the officers to give the task at hand their utmost attention knowing full well that the integrity as well as image of the Board was at stake. 

The Registrar announced that JAMB would continue to do all that is required in the conduct of its examination and would not tolerate any form of shoddy work by any official. 

Putting the stakeholders through the guidelines and requirements for the accreditation exercise, Director, Information Technology Services (ITS), Mr Fabian Okoro, announced that there would be about six centres across the six geopolitical zones which would be used to test run the new-age technology which the Board is hoping to deploy. The Chief Technical Advisers (CTA) were mandated to ensure that thorough checks on the CCTV installations and other security devices of the various centres are carried out. Mr Okoro also said, “If centres are no adequately covered, centre owners must make provisions to install more cameras as remote monitoring of the examination is non-negotiable.” 

The Director (ITS), stressed that all the computer systems must be on a Local Area Network stressing that wireless network would not be acceptable by the Board. 

Other guidelines included the need for all centres to be well-fenced and not in a shared location with any other business outfit, adequate backup systems should be provided, the power supply should be up and active and that every centre should have functional air conditioners. 

Speaking on behalf of the Technical Advisers, the Chairman and Coordinator, Technical Advisers, Prof. Bashir Galadanci, reiterated the group’s commitment to the ideals of the Board. He said, “This is a national assignment and we are proud to be a part of this assignment.” 

About 148 officials participated in the virtual meeting.