₦airaland Forum

I almost lost my job bro. I was so desperate! Let's engage this post more.

I hope you now know the Obi I saw even before any one noticed?

"CONTEMPORARY ISSUES OF SOCIAL CONTROVERSIES"

At INEC OFFICES AND OUTPOSTS you do not have to show any documentations (or identifications to at least authenticate your age!). Just grab some kids, hit the centers, whatever age they assert, that's it. No single form of means of identification! I understand this may be intentional by INEC to remove bottlenecks and ease the process, right? So Togolese can get our PVC, Aliens from the moon too...and then, how do you tell a person's age before registration since age is a very important requirement? But these are not even the issues, seriously! Now, if the process is so open to all, how on earth did they NOT allow third party agents(like NIMC did) to ease the process. If you want it free, queue up in INEC outposts and offices, if you are in a hurry, pay N500 at third party points- isn't that how NIMC eased off the panic of NIN? But we must always begin afresh and learn nothing from experience, may God save us from the incompetence that our leadership typifies. I sincerely urge lawyers in the house to take INEC to court again until all those we saw in queues which they created are able to register. You can not put one machine in a center to capture hundreds of thousands of people in one day! It is called disenfranchisement!!

I will now talk about dwindling reading and study culture. It's going to be long! Run!! Lol.

Comparatively, our folks go abroad and excel so easily. So, obviously our IQ as a people seems comparatively one of the best in the world. But our environment, with the endemic widespread cheating culture, has effectively completely deadened the will to read in our children. Once they are outside our clime and find that they cannot cut corners, they study and excel and surpass their mates elsewhere. In Nigeria, only roughly 2.5% of secondary schools are not cheating systematically in external examination by my estimation. This is because I have charted my informal discussion with a wide range of students, younger adults, teachers and parents and made my findings therefrom. In some cases, folks reported that answers were just written on the board! It is well o. I urge the minister of education to immediately partner with WAEC. Body cameras should be worn by the WAEC supervisors. Another camera should be provided daily to all schools with a stand. Each day after exams, all cameras must be returned to custodian points and recharged there. If cameras malfunction(intentionally or unintentionally), then, all such exams must be rescheduled for the schools involved after all the other exams and only senior WAEC staff should supervise rescheduled exams. So, who pays for the cameras? The schools! One camera per 100 candidates for the first year. The cameras may be sold off every year after the examinations since storing them may be cumbersome. Subsequent years, schools may then foot only 50% of the cost of the cameras since the salvage value from sales made should have covered the other 50%. The Minister of education must get fully involved since his Ministry and State Ministries of education must work out modalities to release funds early every year to cover for public schools. Are these measures workable? Yes! The cameras show time up to the sealing of envelopes. And WAEC envelopes once sealed can not be opened without destroying them! I think I deserve some consultancy fee from WAEC o! Lol. Why haven't I mentioned NECO? You do not want to hear my comments on NECO, trust me, you DON'T! Let them just copy what they can from WAEC later.

Education is the string that holds everything else in a society together. I am dwelling on it today. JAMB is my next stop. They messed up in post covid-19 big time. 2021 UTME results were very unreliable. I will like them to take me to court so that I can dryclean them. Lol. But JAMB has PROGRESSIVELY done very well. They are the only reliable examination in Nigeria at that Level now. The only one! If there are malpractices in UTME, they are negligible! Still, they must, going forward, stick to Literature books as harmonized with NECO and WAEC! No surprises in CD's. It is like asking us to read online terms and conditions! Only 1% of us read such stuffs, meanwhile candidates study for three years for these examinations and CD's only come in when they purchase forms a month to the exams! Thoroughness in vetting questions is key too. Because the questions are e-copies doesn't mean they have to be error ridden! Candidates report cases where up to ten questions are poorly stringed, without referred illustration, or just incomplete! Finally, system malfunction and the line of action to be taken by candidates should be boldly printed on their printouts. The center administrators in collaboration with compromised and poorly trained and informed JAMB staff are seriously covering up their lapses. But in all, I grade JAMB a "B". WAEC is an " E" and NECO is a "G" by the way. Do the comparison. Assume A as excellent and F as fail. Lol. Trust me, if you make me Head in any of these places, I may even fail more. I am merely criticising for the sake of improvement.

Finally, let JAMB and the tertiary institutions know that they are our last hope of rescuing education in Nigeria. WAEC and NECO have failed us abysmally! I know private universities must run profitably. I know too that that tertiary institutions need students every year. But to sit and agree to lower our standards to cutoff marks of 100 and 140! That's completely unacceptable. We cannot keep lowering the standards every year. Soon, we will soon say, for Colleges and Polytechnics, once the candidates show evidence of writing the examinations, admit them! For universities, if they can score 40 out of 400, they are exceptional kids, admit them! Oga, if children fail in a particular year and we do not lower our standards(stick to 180 for colleges and polytechnics and 200 for universities), they will all sit up and read from the next year. That's how to solve a problem. Extreme situation, they say, demands extreme solutions!

I do not know too much, I am basically just a writer trying to punch our consciences hard enough to act. You get, huh?

'Personal Opinion'

At the national level, the PDP has to return to the Villa. The last eight years of the APC at the helm of affairs has shown that we were actually making steady but remarkable progress in the PDP years as a nation, but inevitably, mistakes were made, the grey areas were exaggerated by mischief makers, many falsehoods were sold wholesale, a nice but weak Jonathan was mostly indecisive, and the PDP's journey to oblivion at the National level began. But after eight years of APC's complete lack of traction, rudderless and aimless leadership, blame shifting and buck passing, even the most vociferous APC apologists and pundits now agree that it was the worst in the PDP that amalgamated with the mostly ragtag opposition to inflict eight years of wanton economic woe on the Nigerian people.

Eight years down the line, the change APC promised actually came. The only thing is that they didn't tell us that it was from 'good' to 'worst'. Was it not good that in 2015 you only ate local rice because you truly loved it or wanted to support local farmers than now when you are actually grateful if the rice you can afford is the one with pebbles larger than the rice grains themselves? When it was the good PDP days, oil drilling companies didn't pump 200 000 barrels of crude from fields and get miserly 3000 barrels at terminals. Neither did anyone claim then of technically defeating terrorism when the reality on ground sounds more like the horror in today's Ukraine. Let's just not compare the PDP and the APC here: if the former claims to be white and is off white, the later says she's as white as snow but is actually the darkest shade of coffee brown!

My little personal poll shows that people across board are cringing for genuine change now than in 2015. And the PDP must find her natural frequency in this new reality and resonate to the helms of affairs again. At this juncture, this crossroad, this point of critical decision making, the leadership of the party must unite themselves and members as much as it is reasonably feasible. Cracks should be minimized. And a consensus candidate based on very robust and wide consultation, dialogue and negotiation should be the way to go. Zoning may be jettisoned as a temporary measure. You can only zone what is in your possession. Power at the center in Nigeria isn't with the PDP, and so while zoning as a stabilizing factor should still remain a major area in our dialogue, the foremost concern now should be how to maximize the current reality and return power to the party that our children's future now depends on. Therein lies the vital question: who has the charisma , stature and prowess to coast home to victory on the very viable PDP ticket in 2023?

Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and Mr Peter Obi. That's my candid opinion. And so, in my opinion again, having another Atiku-Obi ticket with Atiku in front gives the PDP the best chance of occupying Aso Rock in 2023. I just pray fervently that there's enough force within the leadership of the party that leans towards this view. For my folks in the South East who may think this is heresy, I understand very well that the South East is overripe to have a shot at Aso Villa, but isn't this route the shortest to the realization of such a goal in today's Nigeria? Alhaji Atiku is not growing younger, if the negotiations involve saying, 'See, Alhaji, take your shot at it for the next four years, we are one party, set the ball rolling in one tenure with Mr Obi, then, in 2027, step aside' but with the clause that he will be a major factor in negotiating who runs with Mr Obi.

Mr Peter Obi is actually my first choice candidate in terms of proven service delivery. But politics is like the game of Chess. You see a good move, just wait till a rated player chuckles and explains the folly of it. Right now, the North and the South West are not ready for a Peter Obi presidency. They do not know him like us. Or at least not enough to make him a strong force yet. But if he teams up with Alhaji and they deliver the goods and Alhaji commits to supporting him, there we have it, Obi will be in the Villa in 2027!

This view is personal and represents the thrust of my personal supplication to God even as we continue to yield completely to God's Will and to the supremacy of the wisdom of the leadership of our great party at all levels. God bless the PDP and God bless Nigeria.
Aku, Uche Henry Jr, Ward 7, Ndokwa East, Delta State.

Disclaimer: I am an ardent supporter of the PDP and the video herein is not intended in any way to ridicule the PDP government in Rivers State. I affirm that the government of Rivers State is doing a great job. But maybe someone needs to bring this need to their notice.
I enjoin all well meaning citizens to engage this post until it comes to first page. Please, like share or leave a comment. God bless you.

Thank you so much for engaging this post, can we do even more until it gets to front page? God bless you.

Please, brethren, let's engage this post until it gets to front page!

Please engage this post until it gets to front page. God bless you.

An Open Letter To JAMB Registrar: Prof Ishaq Oloyede
Sir,
I have written you an open letter on this subject before sir; so we may call this a rejoinder.
The CBT testing introduced some years ago by JAMB is a remarkable feat that many of us thought was impossible and conscientious Nigerians truly commend you and your team. But this year, events have shown that the peculiar challenges associated with Computer-based testing have either been downplayed or (as with the Nigerian thing) completely ignored. Let's talk about these challenges Sir.

Literature Books: candidates start preparing for External examinations (UTME, WASSCE, and NECO) from Senior Secondary School One(SSS one). The impression in schools for the past three years was that the UTME recommended texts for 2016-2020 ended with the candidates who wrote UTME last year. Do not forget that JAMB have always harmonized these texts with WAEC and The current students have been studying 2021-2025 texts as released. Waiting until UTME online registration started to tuck new information into CDs is in very bad taste. Students need to study each subject for three years to adequately prepare for external exams! Please do your own research for yourself. Goggle new UTME Literature books for 2021 (or anything that close) and read the reactions in the comment section. It was sheer palpable confusion.

Technical Failures: Computer systems are electronic devices. They can glitch or develop technical faults from time to time. Power cables can be interrupted and the systems are turned off. I interviewed about 40 candidates while researching for this work. These candidates wrote 2021 UTME in at least 10 different centers in Rivers State. Eleven of these candidates reported that during the 2-hour examination, their systems went off or developed a fault of some sort. On the average, waiting times for restoring normalcy exceeded ten minutes! In one case, the candidate reported that a candidate's foot knocked off power supply(though they were warned to move their legs cautiously, but aren’t they supposed to be teens?) and more than twenty candidates had to wait for almost twenty minutes before normalcy was restored. In between, rather than douse the tension, the candidate reported some unprintable rude remarks of the supervisors when exasperated candidates expressed worries.

NIN: Let us not discuss how this requirement literally 'afflicted' many families during the registration process for UTME 2021. It will be unfair to those who died in the imbroglio. Let us let sleeping dogs lie, it is now in the past. It is the information that are not editable(name, date of birth, LG of origin etc. etc.) that were wrongly supplied during the registration that bothers me. At least half of the candidates I interviewed mentioned at least one wrongly supplied data. In many cases, they showed me a copy of their NIN cards and the wrong information supplied in their UTME registration/Examination slips. On JAMB e-facility, it now costs N2500 to correct mistakes made by JAMB(Oh, NIMC!).

7:00am Examinations: Who ever heard of such a thing? One of the candidates I interviewed resides at Oyigbo West. The child chose Port Harcourt North as preferred Examination town but was posted to Elele! With the usual traffic, it will take at least 3hours to get to Elele from Oyigbo West (and that's if one is driving and not making stops to take public transportation). Add the curfews and military checkpoints in Rivers State and the stories of ritual killings and you can imagine how early candidates can leave their homes. Little wonder then that one child out of the 40 I interviewed reportedly missed his examination. He arrived later than 7:00am! Whoever suggested the 7:00am examinations in JAMB may require a date with a psychiatrist, that we all accepted it, makes us all due too. I am only teasing now.

Port Harcourt North and South: to divide a State like Rivers into two zones and then post candidates who live in Oyigbo West to Elele is to say the least, most unthinkable. Sadly, this year, students, or at least the ones I interviewed in Rivers State, were not allowed to choose examination towns that would be most convenient for them. This created huge problems for families particularly given the security peculiarities of today's Nigeria.

Feedback: I had thought that the mock exams were primarily for testing preparedness at the three levels: the board, the centers and the students. How then will the board evaluate preparedness without an effective feedback mechanism. At least five candidates I interviewed reported that during the Mock Examination, they complained about technical glitches, ten others said they complained about the wrong Literature books while one said he complained about three questions without options and two questions that referred to diagrams that were not provided. Is there a mechanism for collating these direct feedbacks? Or must candidates have the skill and resources to go online too? If these feedbacks were received, was there a press release to at least affirm the changes made on Recommended Literature texts?

The Panacea: Reschedule examination for candidates who wrote Literature.The board can leave it open for only those who wish to rewrite with the books they have read for three years! Others who do not register to show interest for a rescheduled examination can maintain the one they have written. This may sound clumsy, but JAMB's handling of information on recommended texts was clumsier. I encourage parents and candidates to speak with a lawyer if the board doesn’t look in this direction. If my ward was affected, it is an option I will critically think over.

Going forward, the board should (intensify) annual center validation inspection. All centers should be encouraged to switch over to laptops to eliminate failures due to power cable interruptions. Candidates who experience an interruption that lasted ten minutes and above should be eligible for a rescheduled examination where they so indicate and apply within a stipulated time frame. To make this work effectively, every center must have at least a certified supervisor sent to them to ascertain authenticity of claims during the exams.

Do we really have to say the board should shelve (for this year) charging students for correction of wrong information that JAMB (or NIMC) supplied? How can candidates pay to correct the wrong information you supplied?

7:00am examinations must stop forthwith! They are not feasible. I never wrote any examination that early; and in my time, things were tougher! Prof, you may want to share your experience in this regard, but even if you did write some wee-hour examinations sir, please, kindly spare our children that part of your agony.

Similarly, the board is encouraged to go back to the good old days when candidates can either choose towns directly, or at least choose a local government or a maximum of two LGs where they prefer to write the examination. Posting candidates far and wide like military personnel in our present situation is sheer wickedness and callousness. Finally, feedback mechanisms for Mock Examinations must be improved on very intentionally. If effective feedback mechanisms were in place, the board would have received the complaints on wrong Literature books and at least they could have disseminated the correct information on the extension of the use of the old literature books and then, even candidates in the most interior rural areas would have made necessary adjustments.

Professor sir, I am confident that you will consider these things carefully and critically. I salute you sir.

Prince (Comrade) Aku, U. H. Jr.

An Open Letter To JAMB Registrar: Prof Ishaq Oloyede
Sir,
I have written you an open letter on this subject before sir; so we may call this a rejoinder.
The CBT testing introduced some years ago by JAMB is a remarkable feat that many of us thought was impossible and conscientious Nigerians truly commend you and your team. But this year, events have shown that the peculiar challenges associated with Computer-based testing have either been downplayed or (as with the Nigerian thing) completely ignored. Let's talk about these challenges Sir.

Literature Books: candidates start preparing for External examinations (UTME, WASSCE, and NECO) from Senior Secondary School One(SSS one). The impression in schools for the past three years was that the UTME recommended texts for 2016-2020 ended with the candidates who wrote UTME last year. Do not forget that JAMB have always harmonized these texts with WAEC and The current students have been studying 2021-2025 texts as released. Waiting until UTME online registration started to tuck new information into CDs is in very bad taste. Students need to study each subject for three years to adequately prepare for external exams! Please do your own research for yourself. Goggle new UTME Literature books for 2021 (or anything that close) and read the reactions in the comment section. It was sheer palpable confusion.

Technical Failures: Computer systems are electronic devices. They can glitch or develop technical faults from time to time. Power cables can be interrupted and the systems are turned off. I interviewed about 40 candidates while researching for this work. These candidates wrote 2021 UTME in at least 10 different centers in Rivers State. Eleven of these candidates reported that during the 2-hour examination, their systems went off or developed a fault of some sort. On the average, waiting times for restoring normalcy exceeded ten minutes! In one case, the candidate reported that a candidate's foot knocked off power supply(though they were warned to move their legs cautiously, but aren’t they supposed to be teens?) and more than twenty candidates had to wait for almost twenty minutes before normalcy was restored. In between, rather than douse the tension, the candidate reported some unprintable rude remarks of the supervisors when exasperated candidates expressed worries.

NIN: Let us not discuss how this requirement literally 'afflicted' many families during the registration process for UTME 2021. It will be unfair to those who died in the imbroglio. Let us let sleeping dogs lie, it is now in the past. It is the information that are not editable(name, date of birth, LG of origin etc. etc.) that were wrongly supplied during the registration that bothers me. At least half of the candidates I interviewed mentioned at least one wrongly supplied data. In many cases, they showed me a copy of their NIN cards and the wrong information supplied in their UTME registration/Examination slips. On JAMB e-facility, it now costs N2500 to correct mistakes made by JAMB(Oh, NIMC!).

7:00am Examinations: Who ever heard of such a thing? One of the candidates I interviewed resides at Oyigbo West. The child chose Port Harcourt North as preferred Examination town but was posted to Elele! With the usual traffic, it will take at least 3hours to get to Elele from Oyigbo West (and that's if one is driving and not making stops to take public transportation). Add the curfews and military checkpoints in Rivers State and the stories of ritual killings and you can imagine how early candidates can leave their homes. Little wonder then that one child out of the 40 I interviewed reportedly missed his examination. He arrived later than 7:00am! Whoever suggested the 7:00am examinations in JAMB may require a date with a psychiatrist, that we all accepted it, makes us all due too. I am only teasing now.

Port Harcourt North and South: to divide a State like Rivers into two zones and then post candidates who live in Oyigbo West to Elele is to say the least, most unthinkable. Sadly, this year, students, or at least the ones I interviewed in Rivers State, were not allowed to choose examination towns that would be most convenient for them. This created huge problems for families particularly given the security peculiarities of today's Nigeria.

Feedback: I had thought that the mock exams were primarily for testing preparedness at the three levels: the board, the centers and the students. How then will the board evaluate preparedness without an effective feedback mechanism. At least five candidates I interviewed reported that during the Mock Examination, they complained about technical glitches, ten others said they complained about the wrong Literature books while one said he complained about three questions without options and two questions that referred to diagrams that were not provided. Is there a mechanism for collating these direct feedbacks? Or must candidates have the skill and resources to go online too? If these feedbacks were received, was there a press release to at least affirm the changes made on Recommended Literature texts?

The Panacea: Reschedule examination for candidates who wrote Literature.The board can live it open for only those who wish to rewrite with the books they have read for three years! Others who do not register to show interest for a rescheduled examination can maintain the one they have written. This may sound clumsy, but JAMB's handling of information on recommended texts was clumsier. I encourage parents and candidates to speak with a lawyer if the board doesn’t look in this direction. If my ward was affected, it is an option I will critically think over.

Going forward, the board should (intensify) annual center validation inspection. All centers should be encouraged to switch over to laptops to eliminate failures due to power cable interruptions. Candidates who experience an interruption that lasted ten minutes and above should be eligible for a rescheduled examination where they so indicate and apply within a stipulated time frame. To make this work effectively, every center must have at least a certified supervisor sent to them to ascertain authenticity of claims during the exams.

Do we really have to say the board should shelve (for this year) charging students for correction of wrong information that JAMB (or NIMC) supplied? How can candidates pay to correct the wrong information you supplied?

7:00am examinations must stop forthwith! They are not feasible. I never wrote any examination that early; and in my time, things were tougher! Prof, you may want to share your experience in this regard, but even if you did write some wee-hour examinations sir, please, kindly spare our children that part of your agony.

Similarly, the board is encouraged to go back to the good old days when candidates can either choose towns directly, or at least choose a local government or a maximum of two LGs where they prefer to write the examination. Posting candidates far and wide like military personnel in our present situation is sheer wickedness and callousness. Finally, feedback mechanisms for Mock Examinations must be improved on very intentionally. If effective feedback mechanisms were in place, the board would have received the complaints on wrong Literature books and at least they could have disseminated the correct information on the extension of the use of the old literature books and then, even candidates in the most interior rural areas would have made necessary adjustments.

Professor sir, I am confident that you will consider these things carefully and critically. I salute you sir.

Prince (Comrade) Aku, U. H. Jr.

An Open Letter To JAMB Registrar: Prof Ishaq Oloyede
Sir,
I have written you an open letter on this subject before sir; so we may call this a rejoinder.
The CBT testing introduced some years ago by JAMB is a remarkable feat that many of us thought was impossible and conscientious Nigerians truly commend you and your team. But this year, events have shown that the peculiar challenges associated with Computer-based testing have either been downplayed or (as with the Nigerian thing) completely ignored. Let's talk about these challenges Sir.

Literature Books: candidates start preparing for External examinations (UTME, WASSCE, and NECO) from Senior Secondary School One(SSS one). The impression in schools for the past three years was that the UTME recommended texts for 2016-2020 ended with the candidates who wrote UTME last year. Do not forget that JAMB have always harmonized these texts with WAEC and The current students have been studying 2021-2025 texts as released. Waiting until UTME online registration started to tuck new information into CDs is in very bad taste. Students need to study each subject for three years to adequately prepare for external exams! Please do your own research for yourself. Goggle new UTME Literature books for 2021 (or anything that close) and read the reactions in the comment section. It was sheer palpable confusion.

Technical Failures: Computer systems are electronic devices. They can glitch or develop technical faults from time to time. Power cables can be interrupted and the systems are turned off. I interviewed about 40 candidates while researching for this work. These candidates wrote 2021 UTME in at least 10 different centers in Rivers State. Eleven of these candidates reported that during the 2-hour examination, their systems went off or developed a fault of some sort. On the average, waiting times for restoring normalcy exceeded ten minutes! In one case, the candidate reported that a candidate's foot knocked off power supply(though they were warned to move their legs cautiously, but aren’t they supposed to be teens?) and more than twenty candidates had to wait for almost twenty minutes before normalcy was restored. In between, rather than douse the tension, the candidate reported some unprintable rude remarks of the supervisors when exasperated candidates expressed worries.

NIN: Let us not discuss how this requirement literally 'afflicted' many families during the registration process for UTME 2021. It will be unfair to those who died in the imbroglio. Let us let sleeping dogs lie, it is now in the past. It is the information that are not editable(name, date of birth, LG of origin etc. etc.) that were wrongly supplied during the registration that bothers me. At least half of the candidates I interviewed mentioned at least one wrongly supplied data. In many cases, they showed me a copy of their NIN cards and the wrong information supplied in their UTME registration/Examination slips. On JAMB e-facility, it now costs N2500 to correct mistakes made by JAMB(Oh, NIMC!).

7:00am Examinations: Who ever heard of such a thing? One of the candidates I interviewed resides at Oyigbo West. The child chose Port Harcourt North as preferred Examination town but was posted to Elele! With the usual traffic, it will take at least 3hours to get to Elele from Oyigbo West (and that's if one is driving and not making stops to take public transportation). Add the curfews and military checkpoints in Rivers State and the stories of ritual killings and you can imagine how early candidates can leave their homes. Little wonder then that one child out of the 40 I interviewed reportedly missed his examination. He arrived later than 7:00am! Whoever suggested the 7:00am examinations in JAMB may require a date with a psychiatrist, that we all accepted it, makes us all due too. I am only teasing now.

Port Harcourt North and South: to divide a State like Rivers into two zones and then post candidates who live in Oyigbo West to Elele is to say the least, most unthinkable. Sadly, this year, students, or at least the ones I interviewed in Rivers State, were not allowed to choose examination towns that would be most convenient for them. This created huge problems for families particularly given the security peculiarities of today's Nigeria.

Feedback: I had thought that the mock exams were primarily for testing preparedness at the three levels: the board, the centers and the students. How then will the board evaluate preparedness without an effective feedback mechanism. At least five candidates I interviewed reported that during the Mock Examination, they complained about technical glitches, ten others said they complained about the wrong Literature books while one said he complained about three questions without options and two questions that referred to diagrams that were not provided. Is there a mechanism for collating these direct feedbacks? Or must candidates have the skill and resources to go online too? If these feedbacks were received, was there a press release to at least affirm the changes made on Recommended Literature texts?

The Panacea: Reschedule examination for candidates who wrote Literature.The board can live it open for only those who wish to rewrite with the books they have read for three years! Others who do not register to show interest for a rescheduled examination can maintain the one they have written. This may sound clumsy, but JAMB's handling of information on recommended texts was clumsier. I encourage parents and candidates to speak with a lawyer if the board doesn’t look in this direction. If my ward was affected, it is an option I will critically think over.

Going forward, the board should (intensify) annual center validation inspection. All centers should be encouraged to switch over to laptops to eliminate failures due to power cable interruptions. Candidates who experience an interruption that lasted ten minutes and above should be eligible for a rescheduled examination where they so indicate and apply within a stipulated time frame. To make this work effectively, every center must have at least a certified supervisor sent to them to ascertain authenticity of claims during the exams.

Do we really have to say the board should shelve (for this year) charging students for correction of wrong information that JAMB (or NIMC) supplied? How can candidates pay to correct the wrong information you supplied?

7:00am examinations must stop forthwith! They are not feasible. I never wrote any examination that early; and in my time, things were tougher! Prof, you may want to share your experience in this regard, but even if you did write some wee-hour examinations sir, please, kindly spare our children that part of your agony.

Similarly, the board is encouraged to go back to the good old days when candidates can either choose towns directly, or at least choose a local government or a maximum of two LGs where they prefer to write the examination. Posting candidates far and wide like military personnel in our present situation is sheer wickedness and callousness. Finally, feedback mechanisms for Mock Examinations must be improved on very intentionally. If effective feedback mechanisms were in place, the board would have received the complaints on wrong Literature books and at least they could have disseminated the correct information on the extension of the use of the old literature books and then, even candidates in the most interior rural areas would have made necessary adjustments.

Professor sir, I am confident that you will consider these things carefully and critically. I salute you sir.

Prince (Comrade) Aku, U. H. Jr.

An Open Letter To JAMB Registrar: Prof Ishaq Oloyede
Sir,
I have written you an open letter on this subject before sir; so we may call this a rejoinder.
The CBT testing introduced some years ago by JAMB is a remarkable feat that many of us thought was impossible and conscientious Nigerians truly commend you and your team. But this year, events have shown that the peculiar challenges associated with Computer-based testing have either been downplayed or (as with the Nigerian thing) completely ignored. Let's talk about these challenges Sir.

Literature Books: candidates start preparing for External examinations (UTME, WASSCE, and NECO) from Senior Secondary School One(SSS one). The impression in schools for the past three years was that the UTME recommended texts for 2016-2020 ended with the candidates who wrote UTME last year. Do not forget that JAMB have always harmonized these texts with WAEC and The current students have been studying 2021-2025 texts as released. Waiting until UTME online registration started to tuck new information into CDs is in very bad taste. Students need to study each subject for three years to adequately prepare for external exams! Please do your own research for yourself. Goggle new UTME Literature books for 2021 (or anything that close) and read the reactions in the comment section. It was sheer palpable confusion.

Technical Failures: Computer systems are electronic devices. They can glitch or develop technical faults from time to time. Power cables can be interrupted and the systems are turned off. I interviewed about 40 candidates while researching for this work. These candidates wrote 2021 UTME in at least 10 different centers in Rivers State. Eleven of these candidates reported that during the 2-hour examination, their systems went off or developed a fault of some sort. On the average, waiting times for restoring normalcy exceeded ten minutes! In one case, the candidate reported that a candidate's foot knocked off power supply(though they were warned to move their legs cautiously, but aren’t they supposed to be teens?) and more than twenty candidates had to wait for almost twenty minutes before normalcy was restored. In between, rather than douse the tension, the candidate reported some unprintable rude remarks of the supervisors when exasperated candidates expressed worries.

NIN: Let us not discuss how this requirement literally 'afflicted' many families during the registration process for UTME 2021. It will be unfair to those who died in the imbroglio. Let us let sleeping dogs lie, it is now in the past. It is the information that are not editable(name, date of birth, LG of origin etc. etc.) that were wrongly supplied during the registration that bothers me. At least half of the candidates I interviewed mentioned at least one wrongly supplied data. In many cases, they showed me a copy of their NIN cards and the wrong information supplied in their UTME registration/Examination slips. On JAMB e-facility, it now costs N2500 to correct mistakes made by JAMB(Oh, NIMC!).

7:00am Examinations: Who ever heard of such a thing? One of the candidates I interviewed resides at Oyigbo West. The child chose Port Harcourt North as preferred Examination town but was posted to Elele! With the usual traffic, it will take at least 3hours to get to Elele from Oyigbo West (and that's if one is driving and not making stops to take public transportation). Add the curfews and military checkpoints in Rivers State and the stories of ritual killings and you can imagine how early candidates can leave their homes. Little wonder then that one child out of the 40 I interviewed reportedly missed his examination. He arrived later than 7:00am! Whoever suggested the 7:00am examinations in JAMB may require a date with a psychiatrist, that we all accepted it, makes us all due too. I am only teasing now.

Port Harcourt North and South: to divide a State like Rivers into two zones and then post candidates who live in Oyigbo West to Elele is to say the least, most unthinkable. Sadly, this year, students, or at least the ones I interviewed in Rivers State, were not allowed to choose examination towns that would be most convenient for them. This created huge problems for families particularly given the security peculiarities of today's Nigeria.

Feedback: I had thought that the mock exams were primarily for testing preparedness at the three levels: the board, the centers and the students. How then will the board evaluate preparedness without an effective feedback mechanism. At least five candidates I interviewed reported that during the Mock Examination, they complained about technical glitches, ten others said they complained about the wrong Literature books while one said he complained about three questions without options and two questions that referred to diagrams that were not provided. Is there a mechanism for collating these direct feedbacks? Or must candidates have the skill and resources to go online too? If these feedbacks were received, was there a press release to at least affirm the changes made on Recommended Literature texts?

The Panacea: Reschedule examination for candidates who wrote Literature.The board can leave it open for only those who wish to rewrite with the books they have read for three years! Others who do not register to show interest for a rescheduled examination can maintain the one they have written. This may sound clumsy, but JAMB's handling of information on recommended texts was clumsier. I encourage parents and candidates to speak with a lawyer if the board doesn’t look in this direction. If my ward was affected, it is an option I will critically think over.

Going forward, the board should (intensify) annual center validation inspection. All centers should be encouraged to switch over to laptops to eliminate failures due to power cable interruptions. Candidates who experience an interruption that lasted ten minutes and above should be eligible for a rescheduled examination where they so indicate and apply within a stipulated time frame. To make this work effectively, every center must have at least a certified supervisor sent to them to ascertain authenticity of claims during the exams.

Do we really have to say the board should shelve (for this year) charging students for correction of wrong information that JAMB (or NIMC) supplied? How can candidates pay to correct the wrong information you supplied?

7:00am examinations must stop forthwith! They are not feasible. I never wrote any examination that early; and in my time, things were tougher! Prof, you may want to share your experience in this regard, but even if you did write some wee-hour examinations sir, please, kindly spare our children that part of your agony.

Similarly, the board is encouraged to go back to the good old days when candidates can either choose towns directly, or at least choose a local government or a maximum of two LGs where they prefer to write the examination. Posting candidates far and wide like military personnel in our present situation is sheer wickedness and callousness. Finally, feedback mechanisms for Mock Examinations must be improved on very intentionally. If effective feedback mechanisms were in place, the board would have received the complaints on wrong Literature books and at least they could have disseminated the correct information on the extension of the use of the old literature books and then, even candidates in the most interior rural areas would have made necessary adjustments.

Professor sir, I am confident that you will consider these things carefully and critically. I salute you sir.

Prince (Comrade) Aku, U. H. Jr.