JAMB orders arrest of parents found near CBT centres during UTME

Cursory:. JAMB has directed CBT centre owners for the 2024 UTME to ensure parents stay away from exam centres. The Registrar, Prof. Isaq Oloyede, emphasized this during a virtual meeting. Disobeying parents their children’s will be penalized. Security agents will collaborate with CBT owners for a smooth exam process, while candidates are advised to remain calm amid any technical issues.

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has issued a strict directive to all Computer-Based Test (CBT) centre owners ahead of the 2024 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME). Parents have been instructed to stay away from the vicinity of the examination centres during the conduct of the exams.

The directive came from the Registrar of JAMB, Prof. Isaq Oloyede, during a virtual meeting with CBT centre operators and owners. Dr. Fabian Benjamin, the spokesman of JAMB, explained that the measure aims to prevent parental intrusion into the examination process.

According to Dr. Benjamin, parents found breaching this directive by attempting to interfere with the examination process will not only face disqualification themselves but will also result in the disqualification of their children from writing the exam.

The statement read: “This 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. Some miscreants also disguise themselves as parents to infiltrate the centres to perpetrate all forms of infractions.”

Security agents have been instructed to collaborate with CBT owners to ensure the smooth running of the examination. The statement further highlighted the importance of adhering to the national policy on education, which stipulates that candidates must be at least 17 years old to sit for the examination.

“Going by the extant national policy on education, a candidate for the examination must have attained the age of 17 years. Therefore, it is evident that these parents have 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 have obviously ‘smuggled’ underage children into the ranks of those scheduled to sit for the examination.”

Despite the expectation of a seamless exercise, JAMB has made provisions to address any technical challenges that may arise during the examination. Candidates are urged to remain calm in the event of disruptions, as those who disrupt subsequent sessions will face disqualification.

“If a session experienced any technical challenge, candidates in subsequent sessions would be allowed to sit their examination as scheduled, while the 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 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.”

With the examination scheduled to take place in 700 CBT centres across the country, JAMB is committed to ensuring the integrity and fairness of the UTME process.

Credits: ALLSCHOOL, Vanguard

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