UTME: JAMB orders arrest of parents found at CBT centres

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has asked Computer-Based Test (CBT) centre owners to ensure the arrest of any parent loitering around their facilities during the 2024 Unified Tertuiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) exercise.

The 2024 UTME is scheduled to commence on April 19 and end on April 29.

Ishaq Oloyede, the JAMB registrar, spoke at the final briefing of the CBT centre owners which was held virtually on Wednesday.

He said the directive to arrest meddlesome parents became necessary following their intrusive disposition during the previous UTMEs.

Oloyede said any parent who loiters around exam centres would not only be arrested but their ward would be disqualified.

He said it has been discovered over time that many of these intruding parents facilitate exam infractions.

The registrar said some miscreants disguise themselves as parents to infiltrate the centres and perpetrate infractions.

JAMB also directed security operatives to work with the centres to apprehend any meddlesome parent.

“Going by the extant national policy on education, a candidate for the examination must have attained the age of 17 years,” he said.

“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 to compromise 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.”

Oloyede appealed to centre owners to consider their assignment a national engagement, not a purely profit-driven venture.

He expressed shock over multiple intelligence showing how CBT centres have been making efforts to compromise the board’s staff, especially with the offer of accommodation.

He asked why they would want to do that when they constantly complain that what is paid them is not enough.

The registrar said the centres should not hesitate to expose any JAMB staff member who asks for such favours as the board had sufficiently paid its staff for the exercise in line with government regulations.

He informed the participants that the board had deployed state-of-the-art technologies to check all infractions, collaborations, and other unsavoury acts at variance with its code of operations.