Despite strenuous efforts by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, JAMB, to reduce malpractices in its examinations to the barest minimum through the introduction of hi-tech devices and procedures, the 2013 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination, UTME, held last Saturday across the country was characterised by large scale cheating by candidates, National Mirror can now reveal. School teachers, JAMB invigilators and even parents of candidates actively participated in the cheating.
In Lagos, many candidates in virtually all the centres visited by our reporters had access to the supposed answers before the commencement of the examinations. As early as 6:30a.m. some candidates were seen copying answers from their phones into pieces of paper, which they tucked in different parts of their bodies.
Most of them later entered the exam halls unhindered as the papers could not be detected by the metal detector and body searches by officials. It was not however clear how or when the JAMB question papers leaked to the public.
Nobody saw the papers but most candidates started receiving the supposed answers via SMS text massages very early in the morning. A candidate was overheard telling her friends that she got the physics answers from one Mr. Ajala her Physics teacher.
Another was overheard confirming he had got answers to all her subjects except Accounts which he urged the party on the line to send as fast as possible. From Vetland Senior High School, Ifako-Ijaiye Local Government; Ojota Grammar School, Ojota; Agidingbi Grammar School; Isolo High School, Akute; Opebi High School; Ogudu Senior Secondary School, Ogudu GRA; Dolphin High School to Boys Academy, Lagos Island, the story was the same as the candidates were seen either copying the prepared answers or making calls to obtain the answers, which appeared to be in wide circulation across the country. In one of the centres, many of the candidates did not enter the exam hall until well over an hour after the exam had started.
They were seeing copying from their phones and only entered after they had tucked the small pieces of papers under their belts, inside their socks and other hidden parts of their bodies. They were later allowed to enter in batches well after the paid time.
National Mirror investigation also revealed that the candidates were assisted by invigilators. In two of the classes in one of the centres, candidates paid N500 and N1,000 respectively to invigilators to be able to use their phones and their prepared answers.
The invigilators also watched out for JAMB officials and often warned the candidates each time they approached the classroom. National Mirror is in possession of a question paper with omission of three questions, which a candidate asked to be changed by the invigilator. She was however ignored because according to her, she refused to pay the ‘levy’. One of the invigilators at a centre in Agege, Lagos openly advised the candidates to “help” themselves.
“Feel free to show your neighbour your paper,” she urged. Also to ensure that the candidates “use” the correct answers, an invigilator was seen in one of the centres warning candidates to be sure that the answers they were copying from their phones were for the right questions. Parents were also deeply involved in the malpractices.
For instance, at Dolphin High School, Lagos, many parents were seen making calls to get the supposed answers, which they passed on to their wards in the exam halls with the help of invigilators. Although many supervisors denied knowledge of such massive cheating by the candidates, a JAMB official in charge of the 11 centres in Ikotun/Idimu area told National Mirror that over 30 candidates were caught cheating at different centres in the area with the connivance of some invigilators.
He disclosed that he had to transfer some invigilators at Comprehensive College, Ikotun, having sensed that foul play was about taking place in the exam. In Ogun State, no fewer than 82 candidates were arrested from different centres for using their phones in the exam hall or copying from pieces of papers. Also in Abuja, JAMB Registrar, Prof. Dibu Ojerinde, personally caught a candidate for impersonation.
“We were able to fish him out because the registration number of his answer sheet is different from the one on the slip. His slip ended with DA while the real answer sheet ended with FH. “He came with wrong slip, in order to be sure, we went to the internet and discovered that the owner of that paper is from Enugu. This boy came to impersonate and unfortunately we were able to catch him.
I took him to the biometrics and ask him to thumbprint, but there was no record of his registration. I tried it myself; there was no record of my registration. He has been handed over to the civil defense who will hand him over to the law enforcement agency. “He registered for centre 021 but came to centre 022 and 023, he was handed answer sheet of 022.We discovered that the owner of the number was meant to be in Enugu which is O21 centre,” Ojerinde told newsmen, adding that the boy later confessed that his father did it for him. Also at Model Secondary School, Maitama, two students were caught with mobile phones while another was caught with a calculator. JAMB’s spokesman, Mr. Fabian Uchenna, however pledged the Board’s resolve to sanction those involved in such malpractice, saying it was already investigating all the established cases and would not hesitate to apply appropriate sanction on any candidate found guilty. He told National Mirror yesterday that the examination body would soon come up with a comprehensive figure of candidates involved in malpractices across the country before the end of this week. Uchenna, however, denied that the leakage of JAMB questions would have emanated from the Board’s officials saying its staff are “people of integrity”
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