JAMB orders arrest of parents found near CBT centres during UTME

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has directed all Computer-Based Test (CBT) centre owners to arrest any parent found near any of their facilities during the 2024 UTME exercise.

This was contained in Abuja on Thursday by the board’s spokesperson, Dr. Fabian Benjamin.

The board said the directive became necessary following the intrusive disposition of some parents during the board’s previous exercises.

The Registrar of JAMB, Prof. Is-haq Oloyede, saidthat any parent who disobeyed the order would not only be arrested, but his/her ward would also be disqualified from sitting the examination.

“The measure is necessary as it has been discovered over time that many of these intruding parents are facilitators of examination infractions, while others have, by their actions, disrupted the board’s examinations in the past.

He added that some miscreants also disguised themselves as parents to infiltrate the centres and perpetrate all forms of infractions.

Consequently, the registrar urgedsecurity operatives to work with the centres to apprehend any meddlesome parents who come near the centres.

He said that, going by the existing national policy on education, a candidate for the examination must have attained the age of 17 years.

“Therefore, it is evident that these parents had not allowed their wards to pass through the classes as defined in the document, hence the determination to follow their wards to the examination venue with the aim of compromising examination officials.

“At any rate, it is clear to any discerning observer that these parents deserve to be sanctioned as they had obviously'smuggled’ underage children into the ranks of those scheduled to sit the examination.

“The Board also availed itself of the opportunity provided by the meeting to advise candidates to jealously guard their personal details, e-mail address, as well as their registration and phone numbers.

“This advice is issued against the backdrop of some candidates who might be enticed into patronising any of those fraudulent websites out there,” he said.

He also informed candidates that if their personal details were found on any of such sites, they would be treated as accomplices and prosecuted.

Oloyede further said that all arrangements had been concluded for the conduct of the 2024 UTME, which would be held in over 700 CBT centres across the nation.

He disclosed that the board expected a seamless exercise as it had made adequate provision to tackle any technical glitch that might occur in the course of the examination.

He, however, warned that if a session experienced any technical challenge, candidates in subsequent sessions would be allowed to sit their examination as scheduled.

He added that candidates in the challenged session would be rescheduled for the last session of the day, the following day, or even further depending on the centre's schedules.

“Candidates are to take note of this so that they will remain calm in the event of any disruption.

”In this way, any candidate or parent who disrupts any subsequent session on account of the failure of his/her session would be disqualified outright from taking the examination,” he added.

Oloyede appealed to centre owners to consider the assignment as a national engagement and not as a purely profit venture, while urging them to expose the bad eggs among them.

The registrar recalled that, hitherto, CBT centres were allowed to register Direct Entry candidates but this practice was discontinued owing to the predilection of some of them to engage in fraudulent acts

He said this was in spite of the many opportunities that the Board had created for them, especially by ensuring that other agencies patronise them.

He, therefore, enjoined centre owners to eschew unwholesome acts or risk losing vital opportunities.

He expressed shock over multiple intelligence showing how the CBT centres have been making efforts to compromise the Board’s staff, especially with the offer of accommodation.

He asked why they would want to do that when they constantly complain that what was paid to them was not enough.

He said the centres should not hesitate to expose any staff who ask for such favours, as the Board had sufficiently paid its staff for the exercise in line with government regulations, adding that any centre that persists in doing so might have something to hide.

The registrar informed the participants that the board deployed state-of-the-art technologies to check all manners of infractions, collaborations, and other unsavoury acts that were at variance with its code of operations.