LAGOS – Candidates’ lateness to the first phase of the Computer Based Test (CBT), Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), delayed the take off of the examination on Tuesday at a centre in Lagos.
Mr Mohammed Abdullahi, an official of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), said that the delay at the Adeniran Ogunsanya College of Education, (AOCOED) Ijanikin, Lagos, followed numerous candidates’ late arrival.
Abdullahi said that thesituation also affected the accreditation and examination scheduled to started by 6 a.m and 7 a.m respectively.
He also said that JAMB, contrary to other opinions, made provision for such lateness.
“In order for the students not to cause trouble for us, we allow them to write the examination and book them,” he said.
The Director of Information and Communication Technology, AOCOED, Dr Victor Akinola, said their lateness could be due to the ”African time” factor.
He said that in previous times, JAMB examination did not start on time and the students would have arrived late with such notions.
”But these days of ICT designed programme, we are trying to be courteous by starting on time.
“In this regard, in this time of technology, there are things we should start learning.
“We should start learning about punctuality because it counts.
“We should migrate to the fact that punctuality counts and I think that students will start learning from that too,” he said.
Akinola said there were a few hitches with the machines which were immediately addressed by the college.
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“Know also that since it is an examination, the organisers would want to be very careful about the release of items.
”Even those that have to come through the network have to come penultimate to the exam.
” By these there are a number of things we could not do until yesterday (Monday) and this morning.
”And just when you want to do it, you could have issues on them and it could become a problem.
”The structure is to have technical personnel on ground to take care of the escalation,” he said.
A candidate, Miss Angela Mbanu who arrived at the centre by 9.05 a.m., instead of 7 a.m., said that she was held up by traffic.
NAN reports that the examination, which will be held in three batches daily, will accommodate 180 students in every batch.
According to the JAMB official, 173 students are accredited for the first batch and only two batches would be held today. (NAN)
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