The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has mandated that all Computer-Based Test (CBT) centres use laptop computers with at least 2 gigabytes (2GB) of RAM to administer the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).
The board has also prohibited CBT centres from collaborating with cyber cafes or tutorial centres, stating that “any violation of the directive, whether in part or whole, would result in the revocation of the erring CBT centre’s licence.”
JAMB also stated that beginning in 2023, it will consider separating UTME registration from Direct Entry (DE).
These are excerpts from the board’s new guidelines, which were published in its weekly bulletin on Monday.
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The new developments were announced at the conclusion of a five-day retreat held in Abuja between Monday, September 19th and Friday, September 23rd, according to the statement.
According to JAMB, “no new Computer-Based Test (CBT) centre will be accredited unless the new requirements are met.” To that end, new CBT centres must use laptop computers as clients; no thin clients or Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) will be accepted.
“The board’s operations had to be modified in order to achieve far-reaching improvements on various issues arising from the registration process, biometric challenges, and other operational procedures.”
To confirm the readiness of the CBT centres, JAMB said it would introduce three mandatory Autobot tests – pre-accreditation, during Mock-UTME, and the dummy examination (held a day before the UTME).
“Another important factor in the decision was the need to prevent IP address duplication and abuse,” it added.
Ishaq Oloyede, Registrar of JAMB, also stated that biometrics of all accredited CBT centre registration officers would be collected ahead of the exam.
JAMB also stated that candidates must print their registration slips with at least two fingers. “On the day of the examination, any of the two fingers taken would be used for biometric verification prior to entering the examination hall,” it said.
Bad fingerprints
Candidates with bad fingerprints would be scheduled for the examination as “Exemption Candidates” at the registration point, and their registration slips would be colour-coded to distinguish them from other candidates.
According to JAMB, such candidates will take their exams in Abuja on the last day of the national examination calendar, and their results will not be released until they have been thoroughly scrutinized.
