The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has put in place all necessary procedures that will allow the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) candidates use their personal laptops, mobiles and the like in the examination hall.
This is to save the boards millions of naira it used to procure computers for the exercise annually.
This is part of the deliberation at the JAMB’s policy meeting held in Abuja Saturday.
By this policy, candidates wishing to sit for UTME would be required to use their mobile phones and other mobile devices to take the examination.
JAMB Registrar, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, disclosed this while speaking at the 2023 policy meeting on admissions to tertiary institutions in Nigeria.
Oloyede said it cost the board over N1.2bn to equip a CBT centre in Kaduna state alone, to procure computers, which candidates use to take the examination.
He said the policy which falls under the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD).
Oloyede lamented the crave for university degree among candidates at the detriment of Diplomas and Nigeria Certificate of Education (NCE).
While condemning the wide disparity in admission quotas in the country, he urged aspiring undergraduates to explore other options within the tertiary education sector.
In his presentation, Oloyede said, “On the way forward, we are looking at BOYD – the direction for JAMB students to bring their telephones. It lowers capital investment but is not helpful for digital literacy.
“There will be the establishment of a mobile examination malpractice tribunal to deal with the criminal aspect while institutions handle the misconduct.”
He said JAMB would partner security operatives and relevant agencies on cyber crimes to ensure the policy works.
Engaging the machinery and sponsoring them to tap from their knowledge of candidates; movement of some services to the registration portal to prevent extortion, Open Book Examination to discourage cheating and
adopting the use of National Identity Number (NIN) for all candidates to discourage impersonation and exam mercenaries, are some of the measures put in place.
