With the last batch of 85,000 candidates rescheduled for JAMB examination this year’s exercise came to an eventful and highly impactful conclusion. The successful JAMB outing under a new helmsman and management is a pointer to the pivotal effect of strategic deployment of human
resources on the performance level of institutions. For a change, we saw a JAMB that was more proactive and responsive.

The familiar challenges were adequately anticipated and contained with pre-emptive
measures while the random encounters with unforeseen circumstances got nipped in the bud effectively.

To me, the most unique and profound impact of this year’s JAMB outing goes beyond the remarkable improvement in the
management of the most crucial national examinations of candidates for our tertiary
institutions already widely acclaimed. For the first time, JAMB was also able to conduct a forensic examination of the
underlying factors responsible for turning the annual academic exercise into a seemingly
unwinnable war against the hydra-headed malpractices of the candidates that eroded the credibility of the process and lowered the esteem of authenticity of our educational credentials.

The regular references to some of the episodes as they were encountered during the exam period by its “street wise”
academician-cleric-social scientist Chief Executive, Professor Ishaq Oloyede with his unsparing candour, spotlighted the bigger
picture of parental, stakeholder and social dimensions in what had been seen only as the result of dishonesty of candidates and
incompetence of JAMB. However, this initiative was of secondary concern to the JAMB chief who never took his eyes off the exam ball. Even as it was dubiously
dribbled round the axis of sabotage and criminality to counter his corrective crusade in an exercise that involved 140
examination towns, 642 Computer-Based Test Centres,
7,000 invigilators and monitors and 1,722,236 candidates, the professor persisted.

The compilation of statistical data on a range of devious devices deployed but detected before they could hit JAMB speaks of effective defense measures : As many as 1,386 candidates all identified and documented were found guilty of impersonation, possession of prepared answer scripts, smuggling of foreign
materials, possession of electronic gadgets including telephone, copying and spying from foreign materials, unruly behaviour,
collusion and multiple registration and examinations. An incriminating cache of tools of exam cheats was also seized
including shirts, slippers, belts,
handkerchiefs among others. The
casualties included 57,646 centre-induced malpractice results cancelled, 72 centres in 18 states
delisted or suspended, over 696
candidates engaged in double or triple registration and 666 cases of candidates sitting for examination more than once
disqualified and a criminal gang involving persons who deceived candidates into believing that they had access to UTME
examination questions.

Among the deplorable tales of the
unexpected activities reported include Computer-Based Test Centres who collected gate fees as high as N20,000, recruited thugs, deliberately created technical
problems to assist candidates to cheat such as disabling CCTVs installed by JAMB, ran secret rooms where ghost candidates
wrote the examination and colluded with candidates and parents to compromise the
examination. A mother made a murky mark by offering an examiner payment in kind to
help her child to pass and an invigilator was caught in a pass-for-sex escapade.

The report of the forensic examination was just as unsettling by closing -in on the
contentious and confusing concept of Nigerian Factor with conclusive authenticity.

The significance of this year’s 1.7 million examined candidates -highest in 40 years-is reduced to a tragedy of numbers after JAMB declares deadpan that 1.7m is not
news-though it hit the headlines- but the fact that more than 50% of the candidates who presented did not even have the pre-requisite qualifications -which went unreported-! That must also be confirmation of an editorial strain of the Nigerian Factor!
But the leadership strain maintained its toxicity of ineptitude with JAMB finding
that again, more than a decade after policy adjustment, over 70% of all candidates applied for courses in the Arts and Social
Sciences, sharply deviating from national manpower development targets for 70 % READ MORE @ www.dailyschoolgist.com.ng/2017/07/jamb-2017-examining-nigeria/