By Victor Akinkuolie, Ado-Ekiti

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The Joint Admission Matriculation Board (JAMB) has promised parents and candidates for the 2023 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination hitch-free exercise coming up later this month.

This came as parents and prospective admission seekers, who wrote the recent JAMB mock examination, berated the Board for poor and technical hitches encountered during the conduct of the examination.

The aggrieved parents and students expressed disgust over the poor and technical failure experienced in virtually all the designated Computer Test Based (CTBC) centres located in various parts of the State.

They alleged that the preparatory examination that was supposed to take off by 7 am could only start at 2 pm and some of the candidates had no space to sit.

Parents, who accompanied their wards to the exam centres, could not leave before 5 pm.

One of the visibly angered parents, Mr. Tope Adelakun, said, “This was a very disappointing situation and JAMB must get it corrected to avert recurrence during the main examination later in the month.

“The essence of this mock examination is for applicants to get cognate experiences and do a self-examination based on the outcomes. But how do you assess the applicants fairly under this tough condition? “

Mrs. Abimbola Kolade lamented, “Applicants who came to start an examination at 7 am ended up starting at 2-3 pm. This was highly disappointing and could affect their performances.

“The JAMB must correct this anomaly before the coming examination. We also advise that only the centres with enough spaces should be designated for such examination in the future.”

However, the Acting State Coordinator of JAMB in Ekiti, Ebenezer Olowolafe, denied the reports of technical hitches across the CBT-accredited centres in the State.

He added that some of the candidates who had their examination scheduled for 8 am were only rescheduled for 2 pm not due to any technical hitches.

The JAMB Coordinator appealed to the candidates and their parents for the shift in the timing of the mock exercise without proper notifications, especially those scheduled for 8am on Thursday.

Meanwhile, in a statement signed by JAMB, the board appealed to candidates and the general public for understanding, saying it would not relent in its efforts to devise new and better ways of enhancing the quality of its assessment in Nigeria.

“The Board would want to use this opportunity to apologise to all candidates for any inconvenience they might have experienced on account of this. This is part of a development process aimed at enhancing the Board’s efforts at improving the quality, security, and sanctity of its services and as well as using the same to herald the next phase of its transformational agenda.

 “The Board would look at all issues thrown up by the mock exercise and act accordingly for a better and enhanced exercise.”