JAMB suggests use of CBT for public examinations

Bwari (FCT) – The Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has suggested the adoption of Computer Based Test (CBT) in the conduct of public examinations to improve the standard of education .
This is contained in a statement issued on Monday in Abuja by Mr Fabian Gabriel, Head, Public Relations Unit of JAMB.
The statement said that JAMB was determined to give equal opportunity to candidates who are desirous of qualitative education.
It also described CBT as the best mode of e-examination, especially in the conduct of such examinations in prisons.
“The Board conducted the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination on CBT mode for 250 prisoners.
“This was administered to prisoners in Ikoyi and Kaduna, who were at the verge of completing their jail terms.
“The Board has deployed its systems and computers to the prisoners for the examination to be conducted without hitches.
“The examination at the prisons is part of our resolve to meet global expectations of reformative institution and remolding of repented prisoners to pursue their educational careers,’’ the statement said.
It said that the conduct of examinations for prisoners through CBT was part of the Board’s corporate social responsibility based on the peculiar nature and confinement of inmates.
The statement said that the CBT examination which started on Saturday May 17, would end on Monday, June 2.
It urged all Nigerians to support the drive to revamp the nation’s education, while assuring that there was no going back on the full blown CBT, come 2015.
Also the African Pride Empowerment Empire, an NGO, on Saturday commended the Joint Matriculation Examination Board (JAMB) for introducing the Computer-Based Test (CBT) to check examination malpractice in Nigeria.
The organisation’s president, Mr Godwin Uwagbale, gave the commendation while speaking on the sidelines of its reach out to students campaign in some schools in Lagos.
Uwagbale said the introduction would to a large extent curb the prennial problem of examination malpractice and advised students to shun it to attain desirable intellectual heights in society.
He said that examination malpractice militated against academic progress as it always made children less intelligent and to display false high grades.
“No developed country in the world can attain any form of advantage through examination malpractice, it is only those without vision that subscribe to it,” he said.
According to Uwagbale, the current JAMB’s CBT is a bold step in curbing examination malpractice.
“I commend JAMB for introducing the CBT to complement the paper-based test which has been an easy prey to malpractice.
“So far, from what we have seen, the computer-based tests centres are not places for malpractice, it is a  plus for the board,” he said.
He noted that though there were some challenges in the computer-based exercise, other examination boards should borrow a leaf from JAMB.
Uwagbale urged parents and teachers to discourage their children and students from getting involved in the menace before it destroyed the country’s educational standard.
(NAN)