By FUNMILAYO ADEYEMI

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) says candidates affected by technical glitches will be reassigned the new Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) dates and centres.

It said the move was to ensure that no registered candidate is denied the opportunity to sit for the examination

The Public Communication Adviser of JAMB, Dr Fabian Benjamin, gave the assurance on Friday in Abuja during the Senate Committee on Tertiary Institutions and TETFund monitoring of the ongoing UTME.

Benjamin spoke while responding to concerns raised by parents and candidates affected by technical disruptions at the Good Success Computer-Based Test (CBT) Centre, Utako.

He said the board anticipated minor operational challenges, considering the nationwide scale of the examination, saying that it had put mechanisms in place to address them promptly.

“Naturally, you should have one or two challenges here and there. It is not unusual and I don’t think there is anybody that will condone the exam using one thousand centres and then you expect that you won’t have any problem.

“The most important thing is that if these problems do occur, are you prepared to handle them? And that is what we have just done there,” he said.

Benjamin assured that JAMB would continue rescheduling affected candidates where necessary and would also conduct a mop-up examination for those unable to write due to centre failures.

He explained that the mop-up exercise was designed to accommodate candidates whose examinations were disrupted, stressing that the board remained committed to fulfilling its obligation to all registered candidates.

Benjamin added that only a few centres out of the 957 centres deployed nationwide had experienced operational failure.

Earlier, Chairman, Senate Committee on Tertiary Institutions and TETFund, Sen. Mohammed Dandutse, acknowledged that while progress had been recorded in the conduct of the examination, several challenges still required urgent attention.

Dandutse said the committee would intensify oversight to ensure improvements in JAMB’s operations and prevent recurrence of technical disruptions.

“From what we have seen progress and we have seen a lot of challenges faced by the centres.

“And this one is not only in Abuja, it is throughout the country. As a matter of fact, we sincerely appreciate what we have seen so far.

“The other issue is a technical issue, it happened yesterday and it also happened today, which was explained by the supervisor.

“But the truth of the matter is that it has been a constraint to JAMB because these issues need to be addressed even before the exam takes place,” he said.

He noted that the committee had directed JAMB to take immediate corrective measures to enable affected candidates sit the examination without further hardship.

The senator assured that the National Assembly would review the board’s activities and work toward ensuring that all CBT centres operate efficiently.

He stressed that candidates who travelled long distances to examination centres should not be subjected to trauma arising from avoidable technical failures.

Meanwhile, some parents and candidates expressed dissatisfaction over repeated postponements.

A parent, Mr David Afolayan, said his daughter had been unable to write the examination after reporting at the centre on two consecutive days due to network failure.

Afolayan questioned why longstanding technical issues had not been resolved in spite of legislative oversight of the education sector, noting that candidates incurred significant transportation expenses.

Similarly, a candidate, Eunice Peter, who travelled from Kaduna State, said she spent money on transportation and accommodation but was unable to sit for the examination on both scheduled days.

She appealed to authorities to address logistical challenges to reduce the financial and emotional burden on candidates.

The UTME, which entered its second day on Friday, is being conducted nationwide across accredited CBT centres. (NAN)

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