The Registrar of Joint Admission and Matriculations Board, JAMB, Professor Dibu Ojerinde has given a detailed account of how the Jamb management has been able to stem examination malpractices among applicants, with full deployment of information Technology.
Ojerinde, a guest Speaker at the 11th Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission, ICPC’s, Good Governance Forum, on Thursday painted a brighter future for the Nigerian education system in line with the initiative by Jamb to make the Nigerian students appreciate the values of hard work, integrity and transparency in pursuit of their academic careers with lowered attention on cheating during exams.
He disclosed that the mechanism now put in place by Jamb has successfully neutralized all tricks ingenuity often deployed by students in Nigeria towards perpetrating examination malpractices.
According to him, leakages of examination papers had finally been blocked, while officials of JAMB had also been cut off from having a direct link with examination materials and applicants, as questions were set, processed and distributed electronically, according to him.
He stressed that cheating during examinations by Jamb applicants is now a difficult exercise because each applicant is made to answer different questions, while sitting for same JAMB exam across the country.
He said since Jamb designed a biometric system in 2007, as well as a Computer based Test (CBT) for detecting fraud by students during examinations, sanity had started returning into the Nigeria’s educational system.
This according to him is because students are now aware that to cheat during any JAMB examinations is almost becoming a near impossibility.
He said the system now being introduced by Jamb includes the use of IT for processing JAMB registrations, examinations, results and admissions of applicants.
He said also that JAMB had introduced e-registration, which he stressed has aided in stamping out special centers otherwise known as magic centers specially created in different parts of the country for students to commit examination malpractices.
He said while the use of biometrics has assisted Jamb in checkmating impersonations during Jamb examinations, it has also made it difficult for admission letters from Jamb to be forged as the case had been in the past.
According to the Jamb registrar, the use of CBT has also eased up the processing of Jamb results which he stressed have in recent times been accessed by applicants within three days and 24 hours.
He said it is even possible for Jamb results to be accessed almost immediately after the conduct of Jamb examinations, stating pointedly that while such a possibility has been put on hold for now because of security reasons, applicants can now access their results within 24 hours of sitting for exams
Professor Ojerinde said that other agencies of federal government and institutions such as the Scholarship Board, National University Games (NUGA) and others have been making use of the prototype developed by Jamb to curb multiple registration and impersonations.
He, however, listed the advantage of the use of IT in its operations to include, increase in the computer awareness by students at both elementary and tertiary levels in Nigeria as well as reduction in the spate of malpractices and security breaches in the conduct of examinations.
Earlier, the ICPC Chairman, Barrister Ekpo Nta told quest at the Special lecture that the choice of Ojerinde for the lecture was informed by the ability by the JAMB management under his leadership to salvage the hitherto battered image of the conduct of admission examinations into tertiary education institutions in Nigeria.
He said the JAMB Registrar has successfully restored the confidence of the local and international communities in the conduct of most important examinations in Nigeria.
Explaining reasons behind the ICPC Good Governance Forum, the Chairman said the essence was to stimulate healthy debate and robust discussion on the various topics of discourse and to demonstrate how some public and private officials have been performing by dint of hard work and integrity.