Preparing for UTME in tears

In 15 days, registration for the 2013 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) will close, but many candidates may miss the examination coming up between April 15 and 27 due to no fault of theirs. Registering for the examination has been hectic. Where they were able to register, they did not get centres of their choice, they were sent to far-flung places to write the examination.

The unavailability of centres for the Paper and Pencil Tests (PPT) option in almost all the states has thrown up a fresh challenge in the registration for the examination. All eyes are on the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) to see how it will resolve the debacle which is giving many candidates and their parents sleepless.

Candidates are being sent to states outside where they reside to write the examination. For now The Nation learnt, that there are no more centres in Lagos, Oyo, Osun, Cross River, Anambra, Kano, Kaduna, Plateau and Kogi states.

Mr Olukayode Ademola, who runs Adetops Internet Services in Ladipo, Mushin, Lagos, said centres in Lagos got exhausted two weeks ago. Because of this, he said, he registered candidates for the examination in Yobe.

“There was no centre in Lagos about two weeks ago. Sometime last week, the board released one centre in all states. The Lagos centre did not even last up to two hours before it was full. The Ogun State centre got filled up the next day; the others got filled up the day after remaining only Yobe State, which I registered for about three customers,” he said.

A café operator in Ojo, Lagos, who simply introduced himself as Samson, said as at last week, applicants were still registering at centres in Lagos until this week when accessibility became difficult.

“As I am talking to you now, there is no centre in Lagos again. We are hoping JAMB might open the Lagos centre, perhaps few days to the examination. ‘Even on (last) Saturday, some applicants who could not register in Lagos settled for Ogun and Oyo but as at now, it’s like centres in those states have been exhausted. I helped to register an applicant yesterday but she was able to find a centre to do the written examination in Edo State,” he said.

Wale Olakinye of Cynosure Café, Jakande Estate, Lagos, also confirmed that all centres are full. “A candidate that came here yesterday had to pick Nasarawa. Her only saving grace is that she is from Benue. We found space at Bauchi and Nasarawa so she picked Nasarawa,” he said.

A parent, who does not wish to be named, fumed that his son could not write in Lagos and blamed JAMB for selling forms when there are no centres. “I was surprised when they called me that they could not register my son because all the centres in Lagos are filled; that the only centre available is in Osun. How can he leave Lagos to travel all the way to Osun just to write JAMB?”

In Plateau State, where candidates had only two places to register for the examination, PBT centres were filled weeks ago, according to a candidate, Ann Awulu. She said: “What JAMB did online was to delete names of states already filled and leave you with option of states where vacancy for centres exists but you are only advised to select states closer to you.”

The story is not different in Anambra, Oyo and Rivers states.

At the Search Field Consult, a cyber café in Diobu, Port Harcourt, the Manager, Mr Prince Okezie, said registration is now for the Computer Based Test (CBT).

“Space for registration for manual UTME has long been filled in the state. We are now registering candidates for the e-method. Before now, however, we register them and send to other states like Bayelsa, Abia, and Delta, among others. But in the past few days, there have been no more spaces in these states but we learnt that the only available spaces now are in the North,” he said.

A computer operator in Aroma in Awka, Anambra State, ifeoma Ezeigwe told The Nation on Tuesday that students now fill in centres in Kebbi, Benue, Nasarawa, Adamawa and Katsina states

She said: “Students are going through hard times now on this Jamb issue. The entire Southeast is congested. The only state where there is vacancy is Benue but I believe that area has been filled up too.”

Candidates in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital who prefer PPT option, are still hopeful of writing the examination in centres of thir choice.

At some of the cyber cafe visited in Agbowo shopping complex, students were seen still registering for UTME in large numbers; others are opting to sit for the examination in other states.

Candidates are complaining of the cost of travelling to other states to write the examination. Some have decided against writing this year, others are waiting with the hope that JAMB would still release some PPT centres before the March 15 registration deadline.

“I am not happy, I don’t even know the place,” complained Miss Juliet Enang about being sent to a centre in Uyo, the Akwa Ibom State capital when she lives in Calabar, Cross River State.

She said she bought her form last month and filled Calabar as her examination location, but was given a centre in Uyo after she completed the online registration. She said officials at the JAMB office in Calabar told her that all the centres in Calabar are filled.

She said: “I bought my form around January. I bought the form in Calabar but they gave me a centre in Akwa Ibom State. They just said the centre is filled. They sent me to the Air Force School in Ibesikpo Asutan. They say it is in Uyo main town.

“This is giving more problems than I expected. I think I would go there before the examination to know the place. Then I have to find my way down there and I have to sleep there in Uyo on the day before the exam so I can make it, because if I say I would leave here on the exam day and I don’t even know the place, I may miss the exam and nobody would want to know the reason. I don’t know anybody in Uyo and that means I have to pay for a hotel to write JAMB. I have not even talked about the transport fare. So, you have to help yourself.”

Candidates, who still desire to write the examination in states where they reside, have to choose the CBT option because the PPT and event the dual mode of paper and computer (Dual Based Test – DBT) are no longer available.

Last November, JAMB flagged off the CBT option in Abuja, with its Registrar, Prof Dibu Ojerinde saying the 2013 UTME would be the pilot year to test-run the use of computers in writing the exam. He said from 2015 the examination would only be taken online.

The board has accredited centres with Information Communication Technology (ICT) facilities that met its standard in all states of the federation where candidates who select the CBT option would take the examination. These centres are more in number in well-developed cities than in the hinterland. The board’s plan is for candidates taking the CBT option to write the examination between April 15 and 27 – according to the schedule they are given. The majority writing through the conventional PPT will write on April 27.

Before the PPT centres got filled up, cyber café operators interviewed by The Nation said many candidates shunned the CBT option because they are not computer literate, and fears that things may go wrong and their results would be lost.

JAMB allays their fears, saying the level of computer literacy needed to write the CBT requires the candidate to be able to use the mouse to click the correct answer or the keyboard to enter the correct option.

No matter, some candidates have decided to go for training; others are willing to wait until next year to write the PPT.

At De Masters Concept in Mile 3 Diobu, Port Harcourt, the operator, simply identified as Elvis, said: “prior to the completion of Rivers State space two weeks ago, no candidate opted the e-testing, but after the closure, most of them are accepting the method with visible reluctance.”

Rather than choose the CBT option and write in Lagos, a candidate, simply called Jide, chose to travel to Esa-Oke to write the PPT. He said his reluctance for the CBT lies in the fact that whatever JAMB does for the first time always suffers teething problems.

He said: “Do you remember that when JAMB started the UTME three years ago, many candidates had problems? But it was the students who paid for it and not JAMB. Now they (JAMB) are introducing ‘computer examination’ to it again. If along the line there are big mistakes, it is we applicants that will pay heavily for it and not them. That is why I opted to write in Esa Oke since there in no more centres in Lagos.”

Auwalu Umar, a prospective candidate in Kano, who opted out of the examination, cited the CBT as his reason. He said he has no knowledge of computer and would not want to spend his money on “try your luck”

“I will rather wait for next examination year; before then, I must have gone for computer training and would have been well-equipped to sit for the examination. My dreams of going to the university cannot be dimmed just for one year,” he said.

But Miss Cynthia Bukola Fanaiye, another Kano resident, is not ready to wait that long. She has registered for the CBT and is now going for computer training.

She said: “I have no option than to register because for me, one year is a long long time and too precious to waste. What I have decided to do is to go for computer training, while I prepare for the exam. With God on my side, I believe I can make it.”

A café operator in Navy Town, Ojo, Bakare Surajudeen Lekan, said candidates are also afraid of the CBT. “There are no centres around again because people are not choosing the computer based exam. No shading again. They are travelling to other states to use the pencil and paper based even to the North especially Kebbi. They are scared of writing the exam with computer. People are no longer registering; they are waiting to see if JAMB will open pencil and paper again.”

A candidate, Mosunlola Olurotimi, looked dejected as she registered for the CBT option at Kay Educational Consult, Agbowo, Ibadan. She said she was scared of the CBT exam and anxious about how the questions will be set and what duration the time to be alloted for each subject.

In an interview, JAMB Public Relations Officer (PRO), Mr Fabian Benjamin said more candidates than estimated have registered for the examination. He put the figure at 1.3 million. (Last year, 1,503,931 candidates wrote the examination.) He also said about 40,000 candidates have registered to write the CBT, while another 40,000 chose the DBT.

He added that the board would not extend the March 15 dead line, adding that there are no plans to release special centres as some people are insinuating.

“The March 15 deadline for registration is sacrosanct. The CBT starts April 15 until 27. The paper and pencil test will hold on April 27. We have more than the estimated number of candidates registered for this year’s examination. But there is nothing like special centre this year. JAMB is not releasing more centres,” he said.

He had said the same thing in an earlier interview, “We cannot just increase the number of centres because the candidates are more than the number we anticipated for the examination. Before we accredit a centre for the examination, they have to meet some requirements. Candidates that cannot find centres can register for the CBT. There are centres available in Lagos and elsewhere.”

Source: The Nation