The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has issued a stern warning to parents ahead of the 2024 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME). According to JAMB spokesman, Fabian Benjamin, any parent found near a Computer-Based Test (CBT) centre during the upcoming UTME exercise will face arrest. This directive was conveyed during the final briefing for CBT centre owners, held virtually on Wednesday, April 17, 2024.
The decision to enforce this measure, the exam body noted, stems from the intrusive behavior of some parents during previous JAMB exams. Benjamin said, the parents, who often infiltrate the examination centers, have been linked to various forms of exam infraction. JAMB Registrar, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, emphasized that not only will parents be arrested for disobeying this order, but their wards will also be disqualified from sitting for the examination.
Oloyede further explained that some of these intruding parents are facilitators of exam malpractice, while others have disrupted JAMB’s examinations in the past. Some miscreants even disguise themselves as parents to perpetrate infractions within the examination centers.
The Board’s helmsman noted that going by the extant national policy on education, a candidate for the examination must have attained the age of 17 years.
“Therefore, it is evident that these parents had not allowed their wards to pass through the classes as defined in the document, hence, the determination to follow their wards to the examination venue with the aim of compromising examination officials.”
“At any rate, it is clear to any discerning observer that these parents deserve to be sanctioned as they had obviously ‘smuggled’ underage children into the ranks of those scheduled to sit the examination,” the statement partly read.
Furthermore, the Registrar said all arrangements have been concluded for the conduct of the 2024 UTME, which will be held in over 700 CBT centers across the nation.
He disclosed that the Board expects a seamless exercise but it has nevertheless made adequate provision to tackle any technical glitch that might occur in the course of the examination.