JAMB: When brand relevance becomes a question

Opinion Isah Ismail

So the ‘Federal Government of Nigeria fi nally affi rmed the supremacy of the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) conducted Unifi ed Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) by scrapping the PostUMTE test usually conducted by tertiary institutions?’ Th e decision to annul the powers of universities to conduct individual post UTME was announced by the Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu at the June 2 meeting called by JAMB to fi x cut-off points for UTME.

Th e Minister explained that the examination body has done a lot and now has the credibility that implies that the result from its entrance examination should be acceptable to all. Th is development is a confi rmation that JAMB’s Registrar, Professor Dibu Ojerinde got it right all along.

But how true is this? How the rot began Confi dence in the examination body has been sliding since the 1990s when the so called ‘miracle centres’ emerged, giving candidates access, albeit illegally to UME questions before the examination is conducted.

Th ere were stories that such centres were created by some offi cials of JAMB who allegedly colluded with proprietors of coaching/tutorial centres to create ‘safe havens’ for malpractices. Not a few persons in my generation got to university through the special centres at the time.

Technology to the rescue Following complaints over delays in the release of UME results ( there were even cases of missing results) and recent misplacement of candidates’ scores by JAMB, many had thought the introduction of Information Communication Technology otherwise known JAMB: When brand relevance becomes a question Adamu Huawei, Safaricom support Kenya’s anti-terrorism eff ort Chinese Technology company, Huawei and Kenya’s Safaricom have teamed up to support antiterrorism eff ort in Kenya.

Th e two companies have developed mobile surveillance project to track and preempt threat to security in Kenya. Th e project is a mobile application system that allows security agents to conduct surveillance across the country and deliver real time feedback to servers manned by trained security personnel who will be able to track, preempt and deal with terror threats across the country.

Before now. the Kenya Police Service has partnered with Safaricom to help it deploy security technology similar to installations at the New York Police Department and the London Metro Police. Under the terms of the agreement, Safaricom says it will spend $100 million in the next six months to deploy key infrastructure including 80 base stations and 1,800 IP cameras with facial and car number plate recognition functions.

Special communication radios will contain mobile phone, video, and photo features as well as the ability to communicate in groups. Th e system will be linked with other government systems, which are largely analog. “Safaricom has committed to spend its money and deploy 60 base stations in Nairobi and 20 in Mombasa and 1800 cameras; the government will only pay us for the service once it is tested and it works,” said Bob Collymore, Safaricom CEO.

Th e service will run on LTE on the 450MHz band, which is provided by the ITU for police communications. It is not expected interfere with other channels that Safaricom will be running. For security, Safaricom says the system will have four layers of encryption and will be expected to provide offi cers with analytics and decision-making capabilities, given that it will be linked with an analytics system set up by IBM at police headquarters.

Heineken unveils world’s fi rst carbonfree brewery Heineken NV, the third largest brewer in the world with over 165 breweries and 250 brands in its Floating hotel becomes status symbol in Dubai Odd brand Th is fl oating hotel in Dubai is the fanciest thing you can imagine, giving a whole new twist to luxury.

Th e hotel room is put at £175,000 a night. Th ere the tourist would have a small crew of captain, butler and chef at your service, who are quartered in their own soundproof rooms at the other end of the hotel and speedboat transfers are included, although you’ll need to book your fl ights to the island separately. as the Computer Based Test (CBT) introduced by the board will restore public confi dence in JAMB.

It failed because JAMB as a brand has lost its relevance. “As opposed to the era of Pencil and Paper Test (PPT) when candidates were able to cheat, CBT has ruled out incidents of examination fraud”, JAMB had said. Investigations reveal that the so called CBT was replete with a barrage of irregularities that underscored the lack of public confi dence in the examination body.

Th e last UTME examination saw several protests by candidates, forcing JAMB to resort to ‘awarding scores to candidates’ unilaterally. But was this a justifi cation for post-UTME by universities? Enters post-UTME JAMB had stated that the quality of the examination now conducted by JAMB is such that some of the institutions’ heads were already aligned with scrapping the Post-UMTE because it was an unnecessary duplication and exploitative of candidates who had

already paid substantial amount to sit the unifi ed examination. If this was the narrative that wooed the Minister of Education to the side of JAMB, it really wasn’t the whole truth. With more than one million candidates seeking tertiary institution admissions each year, the Post-UMTE test was said to worth over N2billion in annual earning by the institutions conducting the exams. Candidates seeking admission pay up to N2000 each on the average to sit the post-UTME with no assurance that they will be admitted by the institutions.

Th ey also pay UMTE result verifi cation fee sometimes more than N500 in another scheme of exploitation by the authorities in higher institutions. How JAMB has lost relevance Th e deregulation of higher education in Nigeria which allows private universities and other higher institutions to admit students irrespective of their JAMB scores is one factor that undermine the relevance of JAMB. Another factor that contributed to the confl ict between JAMB and universities in particular is the popular believe that most of those who are ‘helped’ to secure higher JAMB scores do not particularly fair well in most universities.

Th ere was a report of a student who was admitted with over 250 points in UME at the department of mass communication in the University of Lagos but failed to make the minimum Grade Point Per Average (CGPA) in the fi rst year and was subsequently advised to withdraw by the university.

Th ose who think JAMB is no longer relevant must have also adduced the recent meltdown which saw candidates sleep in examination centres waiting for the failed CBT facilities and the resulting fi asco of awarding scores unilaterally as reasons the JAMB has lost its relevance .

Th eir position is that individual higher institutions should be allowed to conduct their entrance examinations subject to the supervision of JAMB. All hope not lost While this writer does not support the exploitation of candidates in the name of PostUTME, there must be concerted eff ort in place to make JAMB more proactive, better coordinated in terms of logistics, improve of the infrastructure for the CBT if JAMB is regain its relevance in the Nigerian education system. In this time of reforms in Nigeria, JAMB can be a benchmark for educational development in Nigeria if it acknowledges lapses in its conduct of UTME and accept measures to innovate and reinvent more rapidly to become even more relevant

Leave a Reply