Academia Kicks Against JAMB BYOD, Calls For Creation Of More CBT Centres

An educationist, Dr. Olayinka Oderinde has said the proposed policy of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) contemplated by the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) will create more challenges to them that they should rather solve the rising cost of logistics in taking the UTME Nationwide.

She said, instead of going for BYOD policies, Jamb should look into the challenges and create solution saying the policy will create more problems.

Blaze Newz recalls that Jamb Registrar, Prof Ishaq Oloyede disclosed in Abuja at a Policy Meeting on Admission to Tertiary Institutions that JAMB was contemplating on new policy to allow Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination candidate writes the examination with their personal phones and other devices.

He said this proposed policy was based on the rising cost of logistics to take the UTME nationwide.

Dr. Oderinde, stating her opinion about the policy on Fresh FM Osogbo on Monday insisted that the policy will not solve the problem of limited servers, mobility of students due to increase in transport fare, limited space, examination malpractices and misconduct etc.

She said money raised from JAMB registration should be Judiciously and appropriately spend, stressed JAMB is not a revenue generation agency but a service agency.

She however advised JAMB to create more Computer- Based Tests(CBT) centres so that students can access their centres easily,and the servers if possible should be decentralise so that there won’t be too much load on the servers that are crashing.

“BYOD Bring Your Own Device is not the way to go, I will rather say, you know the Yoruba will say Origige Ko ni Ogun Ori fifo, am having headache you say remove the head that is not going to stop the problem, it is going to create more challenges.

“I will rather say we look at the challenges, let Prof tell us, what are the problems and then we will begin to look at the possibility of creating more centers, look at the time we are in now, this subsidy removal period, children are posted from one place to another is going to be more difficult for people to access their centres, so, what if we create more centres if Oga is complaining that he is spending too much money creating his government CBT centres.

“What about private centres, they also spend money to create those centres because the money he made, the money government is making from the registration should be spend Judiciously, let spend this money, Jamb is not suppose to be a revenue generation agency is a service agency and the money raised should be appropriately spend.

“Let’s consider increasing the servers if it is a server problem, ok for instance you said I should bring in my device, you have not consider the problem of space if I bring in my device is it not the same centre, if I bring my device where will I seat? is it that centre or you are going to create a centre for those of us that brought our own devices that is one question.

“Is going to create more problem of space, you have your own device and then this one is government device, how is it going to work, the problem of space is still going to be problem for the children.

“The problem of impersonation is there, the problem of exam misconduct, malpractices will also be there, so it won’t solve the problem, what I will advise Jamb to do or to consider is creating more CBT centre as a matter of fact is going to create job for people.

“Let consider creating more centres not large as it were but more compact centres expand the servers if it is possible decentralise so that there won’t be too much load on the servers that are crashing so let’s spend that money to produce what we need, because if we are releasing that as a solution is going to create more problem and we are going to look for further solution.” Said Dr Oderinde