JAMB edges stops cyber cafes from 2015 UMTE registration

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) is to shut out operators of cyber cafes in the registration processes for Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UMTE) for the 2015 Computer Based Test (CBT).

The board had in a statement said as it prepares to go full blast with the CBT examination next year, its portal for the 2015 test will be open in September only at designated CBT registered centres in the country.

It would be recalled that during the recent 2014 UTME, the management of JAMB said it has phased out the Paper Pencil Test (PPT) and Dual Based Test (DBT) while it would go full scale with the CBT from 2015.

JAMB’s Head of Public Relations, Fabian Benjamin, who disclosed this in a statement, added that the old system where candidates applied for the annual examination by patronising cyber cafes was no longer tenable since the number of accredited CBT centres in the country has risen significantly.

He added that the board has already intimated owners of the CBT centres of the new plan.

At a recent workshop organised for service providers, Registrar and Chief Executive of JAMB, ’Dibu Ojerinde, gave presentation on how to make the registration exercise error and stress free for candidates with a view for the board to generate the necessary information for the examination.

Ojerinde commended the service providers for helping to nurture the new examination regime just as he said various measures were being taken to consolidate the UTME in Nigeria.

A Lagos owner of a cyber café in Shomolu area, Ann Iyamah, who said the development was news to her, lamented that whatever shortcomings that informed the decisions were caused by the board.

Wondering why the board would suddenly shut out operators that had helped to build up the system for corporate CBT centres, she opined that business centre owners will look elsewhere to shore up their operations.