Date: 2017-05-15

After several months of preparation, the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board, JAMB, commenced the week-long 2017 Unified Tertiary Matriculations Examination, UTME, on Saturday.

As the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) began its 2017 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), candidates commended JAMB as others lamented the irregularities experienced in the network at the Computer Based (CBT) Centres.

Some of the candidates who spoke in an interview in some parts of the country decried poor internet network.

It was observed that there was orderliness at most of the exam centres visited while students took their turns to write the exam. The 2017 UTME, which commenced at about 8:30 am is a two hour exam for every batch and is expected to hold for seven days, excluding Sunday across the country.

Some of the candidates at the University of Ilorin, CBT Centre, in Ilorin applauded the management of the institution for putting in place adequate equipment and an effective internet facility.

A candidate at the centre, Wale Bakare said, "owing to the difficulties we experienced during registration for the examination, my thought was that, the UTME will go the same way but I was wrong.

"I had visited the Unilorin CBT Centre on Friday to assess the level of preparedness and I was surprised with what I met on ground. "During the examination, most of us (the candidates) were surprised to see the Vice Chancellor of the institution as our supervisor and nobody has a reason to complain due to the adequate facilities on ground," he said.

Also, another candidate who simply identified herself as Kemi said there was orderliness at the Oyun CBT centre where she sat for the examination in Ilorin. According to her, the few students who had difficulty should rather blame themselves for not taking up computer lessons or failure to partake in the recent mock exam.

However in Osun, FCT and Nasarawa State, some candidates expressed dissatisfaction over poor internet challenges at their respective CBT centres especially at Kunike International School, Ilesa road in Osogbo.

Also candidates at the Risewise CBT centre in Kuchikau, Nasarawa State lamented poor internet facilities. Dauda Geoffrey at the Kuchikau, CBT centre, told newsmen that he experienced some challenges ranging from bad network to system tripping off as a result of power failure.

He said that the operators in the centre were, however, able to manage the problems, adding that the experience can deter candidates from full concentration in the exam.

"Generally, the exam was good but some of us experience some hitches while writing the exam because some of the computer systems were malfunctioning. "They were logging in and out and we also experienced a situation where some of the systems were outrightly switched off.

"But the officials were able to manage the situation because for those of us with the challenge, we have to wait for some candidates to finish then we move to their system to write our exams," he said.

Geoffrey, however, said he would rather prefer the old method of paper and pencil in writing the exam as it was stressed free.

A candidate, Faith Attah, noted that the only problem faced in the centre was that of network failure, adding that JAMB authority should look for ways of solving the problems for the next batch of candidates.

She said that this would help erase the doubt of hitch-free exam from the public. Some of the candidates also decried the unfriendly attitude of some JAMB staff to candidates who needed immediate attention or are faced with some challenges.

Earlier, the JAMB supervisor at the centre, Ayodele Ojo, said the problems were minor but promised to proffer immediate solution before subsequent batches. Ojo also said that the exam was smooth; adding that all the candidates were familiar with the computer as there was no problem of having to put them through the system.

In Osogbo, a candidate, Adebayo Oyelabi, said that he experienced bad network and wrong password in the event of logging into the JAMB website. Oyelabi said the computer systems at Kunike denied a lot of candidates' access to the UTME site, which eventually led to distraction before the intervention of the coordinator and normalcy was later returned.

"The computer will tell us, "No exams for you" which made some of us to become uncomfortable. "Some candidates have to be taken from one position to another position just to ensure easy access to the portal," he said.