The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (UTME) has said that once it establishes evidence of examination malpractices against any candidate who wrote the 2019 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), it will cancel, outright, the result of such candidate rather than deduct marks as speculated.
The Board’s Head, Media and Information, Dr. Fabian Benjamin, disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria on Sunday in Lagos.
Benjamin had explained that it was not true that JAMB was deducting some marks from candidates with proven cases of examination malpractice.
Rather, he said, once the Board establishes evidence of any form of examination malpractice, it will cancel, outright, the result of such candidate rather than deduct marks.
“If we establish any case of infraction or examination malpractice in any centre too, such centre will be shut down and the entire results of candidates who wrote in that centre from the commencement of the examination, which was April 11 to the end will automatically be cancelled.
“Such affected candidates are rescheduled immediately for the examination in another centre as was the case in some centres in Abia,” he said.
He added that the Board made several arrests of persons caught trying to undermine the integrity of the examination and process while it lasted, just like it shut down centres that fell short of standards.
Benjamin said that the Professor Ishaq Oloyede-led JAMB has zero tolerance for any form of corruption, which includes examination malpractice.
EduCeleb.com reports that over 1.8 million candidate wrote the 2019 UTME. which was held between 11th and 17th April across CBT centres across the country. Many still await their results, which Oloyede said would be out as soon as investigations are concluded appropriately.
Meanwhile, anti-graft agency, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) said it had commenced a probe into suspected fraud within the examination body in recent years.
