House of Reps want suspension of CBT tests

According to various media reports, the House of Representatives has urged the federal government to direct the Joint Admissions Matriculation Board (JAMB) to suspend the computer based 2016 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination test.

The House's decision followed the adoption of a motion brought under matters of urgent public importance by a member, Hon. Oghene Egoh (PDP-Lagos).

The lawmaker said there was need for JAMB to go back to the paper examination until the board was ready to conduct a hitch-free Computer Based Test (CBT).

According to Egoh, over a million candidates who sat for the computer-based UTME have experienced various degrees of technical hitches.

The technical hitches, he said, put the candidate's chances of gaining admission into universities at serious risk.

“Already serious admission problem is rocking the nation because already JAMB receives huge allocation from Federal Government every year. Yet they charge candidates all manner of fees and majority of the children do not gain admission either because of the technical hitches of the CBT or the post UTME introduced by various tertiary institutions,” Egor said.

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He further added that while some candidates are getting conflicting scores in the ongoing exercise, others are complaining of malfunctioning computers.

“There were instances of double-option answers, computers were malfunctioning and suddenly short down causing absurdity that place some candidates in disadvantaged position,” he said.

Another member of the house, Aishatu Dukku (APC-Gombe) said that JAMB was not ready for the computer based option, adding that JAMB should “make it optional for students on whether to use computer based or pen and paper.”

However, another member, Mohammed Zakari (APC-Kwara), said students in diaspora who are participating in the examination should be considered.

According to Zakari, the computer-based option would give students abroad the opportunity to be a part of the examination.

In his ruling, speaker Yakubu Dogara, directed the House Committee on Education to liaise with the Federal Ministry of Education to ensure compliance and report back to the House within one week.