The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board(JAMB), will soon begin prosecution of parents who aid their ward or children in examination malpractices.
Its Registrar and Chief Executive Officer, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, who disclosed while monitoring the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination UTME mop up exercise at the Technology CBT Centre in NAF Valley Estate, Abuja, faulted parents for involving in the act.
According to him, parents are the major problem facing the conduct of public examinations as they found malpractices even to the detriment of their children.
He said:”Parents found to be financing examination malpractice schemes for their children would soon face investigation and possible prosecution.”
He revealed that than 80 percent of the 98,232 candidates eligible for the nationwide mop-up did not show up for the exercise.
He said it was not surprising especially when the Board has intensified security measures targeting impersonators and exam cheats.
He disclosed that only about 12 percent out of about 90,000 registered candidates showed up across the country.
Oloyede, who justified the mop-up exams he said it is typically organized for a few thousand candidates with legitimate reasons such as illness or verified technical issues to miss the main UTME.
“Every year, we do mop-up. And it is normally for about 4,000, 5,000 students. Who for illness, for genuine excuse could not take the exam. Or who after review, we saw had technical problems in their centers. This is normally for about 4,000, 5,000. Every year we do that,” he said.
He said that this year’s large mop-up pool was necessitated by allegations of widespread absences in the main examination.
The Board, he said, decided to give everyone a second chance—while also leveraging intelligence gathered from security agencies.
He added:“In the wisdom of the management and our stakeholders, we felt everybody (who missed the exam) should be given opportunity. Whether for whatever reason that you did not make it. But again, we also knew that we are wiser.
“Given the work that we have done in conjunction with the SSS and the police. We have been able to get some intelligence, some information that we could use. To really apprehend those who are impersonating in particular.
“So we now felt that it’s better to keep the door open as wide as possible. At least to apprehend (impersonators)……And then you can see that the performance (turnout) throughout the country is far, far below what you would expect. Those who even indicated coming out of the 90,000, there are about 12,000 plus. Who eventually, who indicated that they were coming.”
