Amid growing concerns over the safety and welfare of candidates sitting for the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), the Citizenship Civic Awareness Centre (CCAC) has called on the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) to urgently review its examination logistics and policies to prevent needless loss of lives.
In a statement signed by Adeola Soetan and shared on Facebook, the CCAC lamented that no examination should be worth the life of any Nigerian youth, noting that the current system exposes candidates, many of them teenagers, to undue risks including kidnapping, motor accidents, and excessive stress.
Soetan outlined several recommendations aimed at improving the safety and convenience of candidates. Chief among them is that JAMB should fix exam start times between 8am and 9am to prevent candidates from traveling in the early hours of the morning when risks are higher.
The group also urged JAMB to extend the examination period across more days and adopt a system of shuffling or setting different but standard questions to curb cheating while allowing candidates to write their exams closer to home.
“Since it is a Computer-Based Test (CBT), it should be easy to juggle questions or provide different sets of questions for different days. Please ask your experts,” Soetan emphasized.
Another major concern raised is the practice of posting candidates to towns or states far from their residences. Soetan recalled that in the 1980s, candidates wrote JAMB exams within their localities without the aid of digital technology, questioning why technological advancement now results in greater inconvenience.
“Posting young candidates aged 16-18 from places like Ayetoro or Ilaro to Abeokuta, Oyo to Ogbomoso, Abuja to Nasarawa, Lagos to Ondo, etc., to write exams at 6am is callous and unreasonable,” Soetan stated. He warned that unless urgent reforms are made, the nation risks establishing “JAMB cemeteries” for candidates who perish while seeking a future.
While commending JAMB for improvements in examination conduct and prompt release of results, Soetan criticized the increasing cost burden on parents and described the commercialization of the exam as inhumane.
“The unwritten policy that, like water, JAMB candidates will always find their way to write exams is wrong and inhuman. We must not continue to create the impression that nobody cares,” he added.
The CCAC called on JAMB, the government, parents, and all Nigerians of good conscience to act swiftly to protect young citizens.
“Please do something fast to save lives. No examination should be worth the life of any candidate,” the statement concluded.
Adeola Soetan can be reached via 08037207856 for further comments.
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