Reps Tell JAMB To Revert to Pencil-Paper Tests

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.

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