ISHAQ Oloyede, the Registrar, Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has pleaded with the Nigeria Civil Defence and Security Corps (NSCDC) to beam its searchlight on the operation of tutorial centres across Nigeria “because they are initiating Nigerian children into examination malpractice.
“Tutorial centres are centers of examination malpractices. They are centres for recruiting and initiating children into exam malpractices,”Oloyede said on Tuesday at a meeting with the Commandant General of NSCDC, Commandants of the corps from the 36 states of the federation and Abuja and banks, E-trasact, Digital Partner Network, Interswitch and other service providers.
“Even if it is not within your mandate, NSCDC need to look into their operations and activities. I believe we should focus on these centres in the interest of future of this country.
He also lamented that many parents alongside operators of tutorial centres have also initiated their children into examination malpractices.
“Many parents are supporting the initiation of their children into corruption, taking them to these tutorial centres to help them circumvent examination process,” Oloyede said.
He said the increasing number of tutorial centres across the country has become a concern, noting that a lot of them engage in fraud and corruption during registrations and examinations.
Oloyede said charging above the stipulated N4,700 for the 2020 UTME registration thereby making illegitimate money would only destroy the nation as it was an act of fraud and corruption.
He said paying the exorbitant amount causes a negative effect on the nation as well as destroying the system, “many people make illegitimate money from the examination and we will be destroying the nation if we don’t get things right.”
” We felt the banks are overcrowded so we decided to expand the sale outlet to bring in mobile money operators to cover all the registered banks. The effects of the expansion are that some people are still penetrating the banks thereby increasing the cost of the sale of form,” he said.
The JAMB Registrar explained that the Board decided to suspend the use of National Identity Number (NIN) for the registration of the 2020 UTME when it was discovered that field officers of National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) were using the exercise to extort money from candidates.
“If we allow them to continue, what happened to the image of NIMC may happen to JAMB.”
“NIMC is a very sincere organisation in terms of leadership, but its field officers are devils,” Oloyede said, adding that he had video evidence of how they were extorting money from candidates.
Speaking on the approved fee for the registration of the examination, he maintained that no candidate should be charged more than N4000 for the registration, noting another N700 is for registration centres.
He said candidates should go to any state command to complain any time they are asked to pay more than the approved fee.
Oloyede also said officers of NSCDC would also monitor the registration exercise in addition to the monitoring of the examination that they have been doing over the years.
Two men caught selling the registration PIN above the approved fee in Agbor, Delta State were paraded and would be prosecuted by NSCDC.
He disclosed that JAMB has withdrawn licences from 11 Computer-Based Centres (CBT) for charging candidates above the approved fee.
The registrar listed some of the centres whose licences were withdrawn as Federal Polytechnics, Mubi, Adamawa; Adazi-Nnukwu ICT/CBT for selling forms at N5,000, Emkenlyn Computers, Nneameka Secondary School Anambra.
Others are New Kings and Queens Bayelsa for selling at N5,500; Brightfield Secondary School Delta for selling between N6,000 and N8,000; A-Pagen Consolidated Port Harcourt for selling at N5,000 and Influential School Port Harcourt for selling at N6,000.