PREPARATION FOR 2015 JAMB AND BEYOND

• FG urges state governments to build CBT centres as JAMB commissions N154m centre

As part of its determined efforts to give the education sector a face-lift, the Federal government has urged all states governments to build Computer-Based Centres in each local government area headquarters.

Speaking recently at the commissioning of the Computer Based Test (CBT) built at the cost of N154m, in Kogo-Bwari, Abuja, the Supervising Minister of Education, Barr. Ezenwo Nyesom Wike, who commissioned the centre, also charged other public examination bodies in the country to take a cue from JAMB in order to synergise the administration of public examinations in Nigeria.
Wike also pledged Federal Government’s assistance to complement the existing centres in the country adding that government intends to review the educational curriculum so as to produce graduates that can create jobs and add value to the economy.
He further stated that the federal government recognizes the pivotal role of Education and Human Capital Development as key to the quest of transforming the nation within a very short time.
“The Federal Ministry of Education is poised to give all necessary support to all stakeholders in the nation’s education industry. The federal government recognises the role of education and human capital development as key to our quest to transform the nation. It is in this regard that we are relentlessly pursuing with vigour and passion the education agenda of this administration, with particular emphasis on access and quality.
“The JAMB experience is already a model in Africa and has become a national pride which can proudly be show-cased to the world. It is therefore incumbent that the Board should do everything possible to maintain the standard already set with the introduction of CBT in large scale assessment,” he said. Meanwhile, the Registrar and Chief Executive of JAMB, Prof. Dibu Ojerinde has said there will be complete transition from Paper Pencil Test to Computer Based Test come 2015.
“We are not going back to PPT anymore, this is the end to PPT in the country, PPT was full of fraud, malpractice it is full of logistic problems and full of insecurity,” he said. “So we do not want to go back to it, we now have a solution with the introduction of CBT, we are forging ahead with it.”
Ojerinde lamented that over 98 vehicles are being used by the Board in the distribution of the examination materials to the various centres, a development he noted does not also guarantee the security of the materials. On the level of preparedness of JAMB to go full scale with the computer-based concept, he said there are over 156 CBT centres nationwide and ten were personally built by the Board.
The Registrar also used the occasion to clear the air on multiple registration for candidates, saying that “the new policy is that any candidate who engages in multiple registration will be banned for three years.”