BY: News Peddlers
The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board announced new guidelines to ensure the smooth operation of future operational processes, such as the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination.
The board announced this on Monday in its Weekly Bulletin of the Office of the Registrar at Abuja, PUNCH reports.
The board announced the news in a communiqué issued at the conclusion of a five-day brainstorming retreat for management staff held in Abuja from September 19 to September 23.
It went on to say that the changes included new ways to strengthen the operation of UTME accreditation centers, candidate registration, the examination process, results management, and general administration.
"The board's operations had to be modified in order to achieve far-reaching improvements on various issues arising from the registration process and biometric challenges, among other operational procedures."
"As a result, no new Computer-Based Test center would be accredited unless it met the new requirements."
"As a result, new CBT centers must use laptop computer systems as clients; no thin-dients or Remote Desktop Protocol will be accepted."
According to the communiqué, no CBT center may install clients with less than 2 gigabytes (2GB) of RAM.
"It is now required that the Autobot system be used for CBT centre accreditation; there should be three Autobot tests: pre-accreditation during Mock - UTME and the dummy examination."
This, according to JAMB, would be held a day before the UTME to confirm the center's readiness.
Another important reason for the decision, according to the board, was to prevent IP address duplication and abuse.
It also stated that one of the retreat's resolutions was to broaden the scope of accredited CBT centers.
The board stated that each of the centers would now have two additional registration outlets within their state of operation.
According to the statement, Prof. Is-haq Oloyede, Registrar, JAMB, has warned that cybercafes and tutorial centers are not permitted to participate in any of the board's exercises.
Oloyede stated that no CBT centre would be allowed to collaborate with the prohibited group, and that any violation of the directive, in part or in whole, would result in the revocation of the erring CBT centre's license.
The registrar was also quoted as saying that biometrics of all accredited CBT center registration officers would be collected ahead of time.
This, he explained, was because the board, as a proactive agency, needed to move with the tide to stay ahead of the machinations of cheats and protect the system's integrity.
Concerning registration and biometrics, the registrar stated that candidates with bad fingerprints would be scheduled for the examination as "Exemption Candidates" at the registration point.
"Their registration slips would be color-coded and visually distinct from the registration slips of other candidates."
"Such candidates would take their exams in Abuja on the last day of the national examination calendar, and their results would not be released until they had been thoroughly scrutinized."
"Furthermore, a candidate must use at least two fingers to print registration slips, and any of the two fingers taken will be used for biometric verification prior to entering the examination hall on the day of the examination."
He also ordered that all candidates' two verifiable fingers be consecutively indicated on their registration and examination slips.
The Registrar also stated that, in order to further consolidate its data collection efforts, the board would consider splitting UTME registration from Direct Entry registration beginning in 2023.
To further discourage illegal admissions and the printing of indemnity forms, he added that all candidate registrations, including UTME, DE, and others, must be completed with fingerprint authentication.
"The same must be used for the printing of registration slips and indemnity forms," he said, adding that "institutions must declare and provide a list of candidates admitted behind closed doors before affected candidates can apply for condonement of Undisclosed Illegal Institutional Admissions."