How We Conducted
How We Conducted UTME 2019- Full Statement of JAMB
Registrar
(Text of the Press Statement by the Registrar of the Joint
Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Is-haq O. Oloyede, OFR,
FNAL, on the Release of the 2019 UTME Results at JAMB Headquarters,
Bwari, Abuja, on Saturday, May 11, 2019)
DOING THINGS RIGHT AND DOING RIGHT THINGS
BEING THOUGHTFUL AND GRATEFUL
There is an axiom that whoever is thoughtful is grateful. As a
Board, thinking about the challenges so far, both real and
contrived, I want to thank you and other Nigerians who have been
assisting us in discharging the onerous task of our mandate. I
especially acknowledge the prominent Nigerians who have sacrificed
their time and energy in the successful conduct and supervision of
the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) this
year.
The administration of UTME is a collective effort and crucial
national assignment. About 7,000 human resources were at the
disposal of the Board for the conduct of the examination, whereas
the entire workforce of JAMB is less than 1,800 across the states
of the Federation. These abundant human resources assisted the
Board tremendously and we are grateful to them for making their
services available to us.
ADEQUATE SUPERVISION
In each of the 702 Computer-Based Test (CBT) centres, there were
ten personnel comprising three permanent or adhoc staff of JAMB as
Supervisor, Technical Officer and Biometric Verification Machine
(BVM); officer, three Proctors appointed by the Chief External
Examiner of each state, who is a representative of the
Vice-Chancellors, Rectors or Provosts, two corps members of the
National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) and two representatives of the
Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC). In other words,
each CBT Centre is manned by ten resident officer as follows.
i) Supervisor – 1
ii) Technical Staff – 1
iii) Biometric Verification/ Reporting Officer – 1
iv) Proctors – 3
v) NYSC Corps member – 2
vi) Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps – 2
Total – 10
In addition each centre has its local staff who must have been
pre-registered with the Board and to whom a total sum of N10,000
per day is paid by the Board despite the fact that the CBT centre
owners are paid N600 per candidate by the Board.
Ten in situ officers are in addition to members of ten
committees from a wide spectrum of the Nigerian society saddled
with one responsibility or another of monitoring (online and
onland) supervising the centres and ensuring the smooth running of
the examinations.
The diversity of the mobilized officials for the UTME would have
assured one of the remoteness of organised crime targeted against
the examinations. However, the menace could still not be stamped
out partly because of the fact that out of 702 CBT centres used
across the country, only 16 are owned by JAMB while 223 are owned
by public institutions. The largest percentage of these centres is
owned by private individuals who can be regarded as genuine
contributors, whilst a few has inimical vested interests which may
be at variance with those of the Board or the Nation.
BETWEEN THEN AND NOW
Distinguished gentlemen, on assumption of office in August 2016,
only few Nigerians believed in our capacity to deliver the goods of
our mandate. Irrespective of my role before now in the introduction
of the CBT and e-testing to the Nigerian tertiary education system
when I was Vice-Chancellor, there were chronic pessimists and
inveterate critics who gave us no breathing space.
The organised hullabaloo and orchestrated mudslinging at the
time informed our gradual approach in confronting what we believed
would be a war. No doubt, examination malpractice is a cankerworm
that has eaten deeply not only into Nigeria but also the rest of
the world, especially the developed countries such as the USA and
U.K.
For instance, “Operation Varsity Blues” in the US this year,
which revealed the criminal conspiracy to influence admissions at
many leading American universities, is instructive. The scam and
the bribery underpinning the scenario were revealing as the roles
of 33 parents of admission applicants who had been part of a cartel
that had paid more than 25 million US dollars over a period of time
to influence admissions became public knowledge.
The hard decision which Harvard University had to take on its
over -40 year-old sexual harassment episode by one of its top-most
Prof. Emeriti was also instructive of the global nature of the
malaise.
In Nigeria too, examination malpractice is exacerbated by the
insatiable greed and desperate antics of parents who are hell-bent
on inducting their innocent and not-so-innocent children into the
world of sharp practices and corruption. Yet, the given
circumstances made it difficult for us in 2017 to adopt the
international best practice of pre-release clinical scrutiny of the
results of the the examination of this nature especially when one
is aware of how endemic the rot had been since the period of the
Paper and Pencil Test till the recently introduced CBT.
Thus, we released the 2017 and 2018 UTME results almost within
24 hours of each session to convince the doubting Thomases that the
expeditious release of CBT results was not beyond our capacity.
Yet, at the release of the 2018 results, we publicly announced that
the results of 2019 UTME would not be released until we subject the
procedure to some scrutiny with a view to ascertaining the degree
of success of the structures, infrastructure, policies and
processes put in place to checkmate the not very few among us who
believe in the pervasively illegitimate means of achieving set
ambitions and goals. These are the elements that are proudly
committed to the system of rot.
Being a global menace, every serious country is confronting
examination malpractice frontally in order to safeguard the
integrity of the system. We need the cooperation of all Nigerians
to sanitise the system and ensure that not only do we do thing
right, we also do right things. There are sufficient illustrations
of the globalisation of the menace in the public domain. The good
news is that all right-thinking people appreciate the danger
inherent in examination malpractice and are all committed to its
elimination.
FORGERS AND FRAUDSTERS
It is against the backdrop of the foregoing that it was not only
amazing but entertaining that a cluster of fraudsters who had been
benefitting from the crime would go to the extent of forging the
Registrar’s signature, writing fictitious petitions, threatening
the government through JAMB that heavens would fall except certain
rules are relaxed and engaging in other unbecoming conduct to
pressurize us to capitulate to their desires. They were
mistaken.
The Board is therefore grateful to the Government, especially
the Honourable Minister of Education, whose support strengthened
the Governing Board, ably chaired by Dr Emmanuel A. Ndukwe, in
confronting the monster. We also thank the gentlemen of the press
and we urge them to always filter through the fake news and
sponsored propaganda in circulation, which are masterminded to
whittle down our resolve to tackle what we actually consider a
national imperative.
Despite our knowledge of the decay that permeates the system, we
must confess that we are surprised by the intensity of our
findings. The capacity of the syndicate and their modus operandi
were beyond our imagination. Some of the structures put in place
were tested to their limits, assisted by propaganda and paid agents
of multi-dimensional groups. Empty lies were fabricated and made to
appear in solid forms in order to achieve some inglorious ends.
Recent pranks by fraudsters include sending invitations to
candidates for rescheduled examinations. The obvious fact that the
Board is closing all their identified gates of illicit income, has
made them become so desperate to the extent of forging my signature
and issue press releases in the name of the Board. All candidates
are advised to rely on only information issued by the Board through
its official platforms.
STRATEGIES OF MALPRACTICE
Some of the strategies deployed to compromise the integrity of the
examination were as follows:
1. Multiple Registration
It would be recalled that JAMB had cautioned in the media that no
candidate should register more than once and that multiple
registrations adversely affect data which impact negatively on
education planning in the country. We went further to announce that
any candidate who wishes to gain admission through Direct Entry and
had registered for UTME need not apply for DE separately but use
the opportunity of an upgrade to the DE status at no cost without
having to register more than once. Double registrations led to the
cancellation of some results last year but we realised that this
year not only double registrations but also multiple registrations
were recorded. Someone for instance registered as many as 23 times
for just a single examination!
The foundation of examination malpractice is laid at the point
of registration with the active connivance of some CBT centre
owners who allowed themselves to be infiltrated by some who parade
themselves as owners of tutorial classes. Unfortunately, some elite
institutions that charge exorbitant fees, which they had made the
parents part with in the name of secondary education, became active
in the procurement of ‘best results’ for their students at all
costs. These characters have permeated the system such that it is
Herculean to confront and dislodge them. When one of the
examination bodies recently decided that one category of teachers
would not supervise its public examinations, all hell was let
loose. However, the truth of the matter is that the body is correct
in its resolve.
There are many ways of multiple registration. While the rich
procure graduates and senior undergraduates to write examinations
in the name of their pampered children who will then use the
highest score to obtain admission to some institutions of choice,
the not-too-rich do multiple registrations by simply re-arranging
their names, then claim the highest of the scores obtained. The
extent of this infraction is appreciated through the huge amount of
money JAMB makes from the correction of names , dates of birth by
the perpetrators.
One of the major strategies of JAMB to counter this is the
introduction of a short code where every candidate types his or her
name and sends it directly to 55019 on the particular phone. This
was introduced in 2018 UTME but it did not reduce the menace of
multiple registrations as over N200 million was still paid to JAMB
by the syndicate to correct data relating to pre-meditated name
-error.
Another means deployed was to register more than one candidate
who will all log into the exam hall and log out the legitimate
owner who would now call for help as a result of not being able to
access the questions. This scenario will ultimately cause the
rescheduling of exams and allow professional examination writers to
have as many candidates as possible to sit for.
The Board this year has deployed appropriate technologies to
detect not only the facial duplication of candidates but also
biometric multiplication. The Board has also gone as far as
identifying identical twins and siblings whose existence should be
recognised but not allowed to create a loophole for the fraudsters.
Many twins across the country will testify that we were in touch
with them as a way of verifying their identities. For those we are
not sure of their distinct identities, we have created a platform
to justify their characteristics in order not to throw the baby out
with the bath water.
Those who belong to this doubtful category are treated as
follows:
a) Those who have facial identities in multiples are cross-checked
further by ascertaining their fingerprints. Where fingerprints are
not identical or not more than two registrants even if their
fingers are identical, we give them the benefit of the doubt
especially when only one exam was taken.
b) We canceled those with multiple registration and who wrote two
or more examination with identical finger prints.
We therefore caution that this is the last time that double
registration will be given any consideration. Henceforth, anyone
who registers more than once will be taken to have engaged in
examination malpractice and be treated as such. The bloated figure
of registrants distorts data and derail proper planning.
2. Impersonation
In the 2019 UTME, we were able to identify a large number of
impersonators who have been writing UTME for candidates. Most of
the tutorial masters specialize in recruiting such professional
writers for the candidates. They do so by using the names directly
or variants of the name or by multiple registrations. An example is
Anambra State where two centres registered a large number of
impersonating candidates. (PICTURE) In such cases, the results of
the candidates have been cancelled and the CBT centres delisted. We
have also tracked the registration centres and the computers used.
In cases where we were able to ascertain the culpability of the
centres, we delisted them. Where we have doubts, our principle is
that we would rather allow 10 criminals to go scot-free than allow
an innocent person to be unjustly punished.
Another dimension of impersonation is a futile attempt of
defeating the biometric capturing of ten fingers that was
introduced in 2017. The fraudsters thought they could beat the
system through ‘contributed fingers’ where two or more persons
would use their fingers to register for candidates thinking that
any of them would be able to write for such candidates if the
system allowed it. Two examples of this case are in the Aminu Saleh
College of Education, Azare, where someone’s finger(s) was
discovered in 42 person’s registration and Bauchi State University,
Gadau, where one person’s is traced to the registration of 64
candidates with a view to allowing any of the finger-contributing
impersonators to access the examination hall.(PICTURES)
The Board went to the extent of interacting with the principal
officers of the institution in Azare. We must appreciate the
Council Chairman and Provost of the College whose cooperation led
to the confession of the culprit that he contributed the fingers in
good faith. The confession, as bad as it was, is good for the Board
as without it, there would have been doubts in the accuracy of the
technology deployed to determine and detect the infraction.
Another example was in Borno State where in Nassara Computer
Academy Maiduguri 233 candidates had one particular finger included
in each of their biometric registration. We have made
representative arrests and we must thank the Inspector-General of
Police and the Commandant-General of the NSCDC for their wonderful
cooperation. The IGP actually set up a Special Task Force of the
Force Intelligence Bureau (FIB) which assisted tremendously in
tracking the offenders.
Initially, people thought that what happened in the US in the
timely conviction of those involved in the admission scandal could
not happen in Nigeria. However, it is gratifying that today, some
convictions have been made not only because of the infallibility of
the evidence presented but also the uprightness of the judges in
dispensing justice without delay. It is only an ardent pessimist
that would doubt the advent of the positive change in the Nigerian
judiciary.
3. Deliberate Disruption of the Examination
Process
Many candidates had been tutored by fraudsters to disconnect cables
and power sources with a view to claiming disruption and in the
process allow mercenaries to execute their pre-planned agenda. This
is not to claim that there were no genuine cases of technical
hitches in which cases prompt action of rescheduling was taken
There was a case of a purported fire outbreak in an Abuja centre
which did not burn a single ceiling made of cardboard. While
scrutinising the place, there was a so-called professor who
presented himself as a JAMB official just to gain entrance to the
examination centre to do a hatchet job because his daughter was
writing the examination in the centre.
Some candidates had been caught who confessed that they were
told by their mothers not to log in in the examination hall.
Candidates with Registration Numbers 95040702IC and 95038921JA at
Heritage and Infinity Centre in Abia belong to this category, one
of whom when notified of her inactivity 30 minutes into the
examination claimed she was still praying. Where such candidates
were forced to log in, it was realised that mercenaries had logged
in with the candidates’ number thereby loging out the original
candidates. They confessed that their mothers asked them to simply
do nothing in the examination in order to allow the proxy to log in
and use their registration number. Such proxies wrote for as many
as three candidates in one session and contrived some hitches to
further gain more time for more clients. UTME
4. Manipulation of Biometrics
Since the beginning of CBT in JAMB, biometrics has been
incorporated into the registration process. There was an “exemption
mode” for anyone who could not be biometrically verified to be
manually verified. At the 2018 UTME, over 3,000 candidates were
said to have biometric issues. JAMB then introduced a new dimension
to the process which requires a candidate after registration to
print the registration slip using his/her thumb. This shows that a
candidate with biometric issues would not have been able to print
his/her registration slip.
In order to safeguard the integrity of the process, JAMB
introduced the double screen such that data being entered are seen
and certified by the candidate.
In the 2019 exercise, those who had medical or other peculiar
problems regarding their finger prints were sponsored by JAMB to
its headquarters for both the registration and the examination.
Thereafter, exemption mode was cancelled and candidates were to be
biometrically verified before gaining access to the examination
halls. Most of the problems that arose in this process were
self-inflicted by candidates who registered at unauthorised centres
as evident in cases at Abeokuta and Osogbo where grand technology
infrastructure was mounted to register in distance places..
Equally, a number of infractions were traced to the elite schools
whose proprietors paid a lot of money to lure CBT centre owners to
group registration and in the process mix up the data of
candidates. Such schools lured the CBT owners to shift routers and
in the process corrupt data thereby creating problems for the
candidates.
5. Collusion of Some Private CBT Centres with
Parents
Unknown to many, that the robust of question bank of JAMB makes it
possible for the deployment of as many sets of questions as the
number of sessions in a year. They devised means of recording
deployed live questions with a wrong notion that such would be
helpful to later writers of the year’s UTME . Some private CBT
centres engage in examination malpractice by taking screen shots of
the questions and selling them to tutorial centres. At Risk Global
Centre, Anthony, Lagos, for example, the owner (Mr Godswill Okpai)
and two of his sons (David Emeka Okpai and Ebere Obinna Okpai) as
well as the local Technical Officer of the centre took screen shots
of questions from the computers in his centre and sold same to the
tutorial centres for N5000 per screen shot. One notorious
buyer-Embassy-who owns a tutorial centre is currently on the run.
These tutors sale these questions to gullible parents/candidates
without knowing that we don’t repeat questions. (Video)
One saving grace was the quality of supervision provided by the
Board. For example, a PhD holder who had headed a federal
parastatal for eight years was the supervisor in Palmgrove who was
not only unbuyable but also had all the wherewithal to effectively
supervise and detect the illicit transactions.
6. A syndicate of Close centres
A syndicate of centres conniving to perpetrate malpractice have
also been discovered. They take undue advantage of the fact that
the Board does want candidates to transverse long distance to sit
the examination which made the Board to group close centres
together as an examination town. These allows as few as two, three
or four to be in an examination town. This lofty idea has been
abused by collusion of all the centres in a town to collectively
perpetrate examination malpractice. Oxford Computer Institute and
Young Stars in Imo State connived with parents and candidates to
organise examination syndicates at these two centres. Similar
arrangement played out in the creation of an examination town made
up of Bauchi State University, Gadau and Aminu Saleh College of
Education, Azare. We have identified the candidates involved and
their results are withheld.
while not being aware that JAMB was monitoring, the two centres
in Akokwe in Ideato examination town paid N1,760,000.00 to
compromise the staff on duty. The staff concern are being
investigated to determine their culpability.
There were cases of staff who accepted the offer of free
accommodation from CBT owners, We are investigating and at the end
of the day we would also not spare our staff if found culpable. At
Heritage and Infinity as well as Okwyzil Computer Institute
Comprehensive Secondary School in Abia, the extent of malpractice
perpetrated had made JAMB to cancel all the examinations taken at
the centres, apologize to the candidates and re-schedule their
examinations. Also in this category is Clems Business System Ltd,
Umuahia, Abia State.
The CBT centres of Ekiti State College of Education, Ikere, and
St Silas Anglican Secondary School, Omuo-Ekiti, were also involved
in collusion. In the case of the Ekiti College of Education, the
College apprehended the culprit (Its staff), handed him over to the
police and ensured that appropriate disciplinary measures were
taken while the police continue with the prosecution. Given these
impressive steps, the College CBT Centre was restored. Meanwhile,
among the centres to be suspended pending further investigation is
the CBT Centre of the College of Education, centre of Excellence
and Information Technology (CEIT), Agbor, Delta State.
7.Extortion of Candidates
Under the pretext that centres are collecting the 700 registration
service charge from candidates or paying for reading text, or the
mock examination at the centres, candidates are being massively
extorted at centres, some even use military uniform as gatemen to
collect toll.
DELISTED/SUSPENDED CENTRES
A total of 116 Centres have been delisted or suspended. Out of this
number, 18 have been sanctioned by the to the Governing Board of
JAMB with suspension for between one and three year for
registration related misconduct..
PAYMENT TO CENTRES Used for 2019 UTME
All centres without blemish have since been paid, including
unfortunately those who were later found to have committed one
infraction or the other. It is our policy never to put our partners
who had contributed to our success in the pains of waiting for what
we consider as their legitimate rights just because we do not want
some criminal centres to be unduly rewarded .
RELEASE OF 2019 UTME RESULTS
For the 2019 UTME, 1,886,508 candidates registered including those
who registered at the foreign centres. Out of this number, which
excludes the Direct Entry candidates, 59,667 were absent. A total
of 1,826,839 sat the UTME. Today, we are releasing the results of
1,792,719 candidates. Some 34,120 results are being withheld
including the results of 15,145 candidates being further clarified
as identical twins and siblings.
How To Check Results
Candidates are advised to use the phone numbers they used to
register to text RESULT to 55019. There is no need to approach any
CBT Centre or cyber café to check results. Those who were ABSENT,
got their Registration CANCELLED or have their results WITHHELD
will be told. The following are the responses to be expected:
1. If a candidate uses a phone number that was not used to
register, a message will be sent to him thus: “This phone number
was not used for registration.”
2. A candidate with a result will receive the message: “Dear
Mr/Miss X, your result is as follows…(and the details will be
provided)”.
3. If a result is withheld, a “Result Withheld” message will be
sent to the candidate.
4. If a candidate belongs to the category being given the benefit
of the doubt, the message to the person will be: “Result withheld
pending the upload of clarifications/document required from
you.”
5. If a candidate was absent, s/he would get “CANDIDATE ABSENT” as
feedback
6. A candidate that was ABSENT WITH REGISTRATION NUMBER also
CANCELLED will be so informed.
7. “Invalid Entrance into the Exam Hall” will be sent to a
candidate who gained unauthorized access to the examination
hall.
Additional Information
For the first three days or between now and Monday, the only means
of checking the results of candidates would be through the Short
Code (55019). This is to ensure that fraudsters who would want to
exploit candidates by reproducing messages and sending such
messages to them are frustrated. It is also to prevent those whose
results are withheld from wasting their money at cyber cafes or
creating unnecessary crowd at CBT centres.
The Board has decided to send both photo and biometric details
of candidates to Institutions. We have also put bar codes on the
result slips that candidates will be printing. The essence of this
is that once a candidate approaches an institution for Post-UTME
screening, the institution will use the bar code scanner to
authenticate the candidate. However, if a candidate brings a
manipulated slip as the case may be at times, the Institution can
type in the registration number to ensure that it is not a fake
slip that is presented.
Candidates who presently enjoy undue favour of benefit of the
doubt will then be exposed and more results can then be cancelled
for post examination fraud- attempt.
Other Salient Issues
1. Accreditation ends on the 30th of December of the preceding year
of UTME. This shall be the deadline for centre accreditation.
2. All existing centres must go for revalidation one month after
the examination. Any centre that is not confirmed as suitable one
month after the examination shall have its access code
withdrawn.
3. Examination towns shall be expanded in order to guard against
collusion.
4. No CBT centre shall be approved in secondary school except it
belongs to the institution and the administrator is the
principal.
5. After registration, candidates must ensure that they retrieve
their registration template from the CBT centre.
6. Despite the high possibility of blackmailers who may want to
misconstrue the idea and misrepresent the Board to the Federal
Government, there is the need to ban cash transactions at CBT
centres to eliminate illicit transaction and extortions. starting
from next year, UTME candidates will make all payments associated
with registration, purchase of e-pins, reading text and conduct of
mock examinations at one point from which the reading text, normal
CBT registration, service charges and mock(optional) shall be
remitted to the respective states through the committee of CEE,
Technical Advisor, JAMB state Coordinator and a representative of
the CBT centre owners in the state shall superintend over the
weekly disbursement on the basis of number of registration. It
should be noted that the present total expense per candidate is
N3,500 (previously 5000) for application document ;700 to CBT
centres as registration service charge, 500 for the compulsory
reading text and 700 for the mock totaling N5,400 and N4,700 for DE
and candidates not taking mock. In the next exercise the candidate
desiring to write mock would pay 3500 for application document +
500 reading text + 700 centre registration service charge +350 for
mock which has been slashed down by the Board to complement the
efforts of the federal government on its reduction of the cost of
the application document.
7. Any centre found to be extorting money from candidates under any
guise shall then be severely duly sanctioned.
CONCLUSION
The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) conducted its
Unified Tertiary Matriculations Examinations (UTME) between April
11 and 17, 2019 across the 36 states of the Federation and Abuja.
It was a painstaking exercise that was instructive and eye-opening
in many ramifications despite the general success story recorded.
Given the promptness with which the 2017 and 2018 results were
released, many candidates were agitated about the delay though we
had assured them that as the Yoruba say, a female is not named
Kumolu for no reason.
Having explained the reasons behind the deliberate delay as part
of doing rights things and doing things right, it is hoped that
every Nigerian will change accordingly in line with the current
government mantra by also doing right things and doing things right
at all times. At the level of JAMB, our resolve is to ensure that
the admission process, right from the UTME registration is open,
free, transparent and malpractice-free.
We want to once again thank the Honorable Minister of Education,
Mallam Adamu Adamu, the Chairman and members of the Board, the
security agencies, the management and staff of JAMB and indeed all
Nigerians who contributed one way or the other to the success of
the 2019 UTME. We can only hope that more commitment will be given
by all stakeholders to ensure that the future exams will be better
in all ramifications.
.
Professor Ishaq O. Oloyede
Regisrar JAMB