Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) says Wednesday that the introduction of the Computer Based Test (CBT) was a way of improving the technological know-how of Nigerians.
JAMB Registrar Prof. Dibu Ojerinde who made this disclosure in Lagos said that the computer based test is being introduced to ease out the use of paper-pencil and paper-pen in the conduct of its examinations in the Nigeria.
Ahead of the implementation of the e-testing in 2013, members of the Board have embarked on a nationwide sensitisation tour to formerly launch the new technology.
Ojerinde said modern technology was being introduced across the world and there was a need to catch up with the trend. “We must intensify efforts in improving on the technological know-how of our children because with the rate at which the world is going, one cannot afford to sit and just watch or play second fiddle.
“You know people improve on technology from time to time and so we must also try and follow it by catching them young and getting them familiarised with the use of technology of any kind,” he said.
The registrar, who decried the huge sums of money used by some of the candidates to carry out examination malpractices, said that the CBT would ensure that such sharp practices were eradicated.
Ojerinde said that the amount spent on logistics during the conduct of the examination nationwide, would also reduce drastically with the introduction of the CBT. “Before now, we used to have about 88,000 invigilators who usually manned our centres nationwide during the conduct of our examination. But in 2013, with the introduction of the e-testing, we shall be having less than 50,000 of such invigilators nationwide because we are going to use some of the centres for CBT and others for paper-pencil test,” he said.
The registrar commended the performance of invigilators that had participated in the conduct of the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) but said there was always room for improvement. He noted that a lot of them had been exceptional in the discharge of their duties, though some bad eggs among them had been involved in fraud.
Ojerinde said that the sale of forms for the 2013 examination had started, and advised candidates to ensure that they upload their appropriate data.