News

System failure disrupts UTME at Kaduna centre

Published

5 years ago

April 11, 2019

Persistent system failure characterised the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination in Danbo International School Kaduna , on Thursday .

A Correspondent of the News Agency of Nigeria who monitored the exercise in Kaduna on Thursday reports that the examination , which was supposed to last for two hours , lasted for four hours at the centre .

A total of 750 students wrote the examination at the centre , with the first batch made up of 250 candidates expected to write from 8 : 00 a . m . to 10 : 00 a . m . , but they could not start until around 9 : 00 a . m . and they finished around 12 : 00 p . m .
The second batch that was to commence at 10 : 00 a . m . could not do so until around 12 : 00 p . m . because all the computer systems tripped – off a few minutes after the commencement of the examination due to power cut.

Other systems were bad and had to be replaced with back – up , while others kept going off at different intervals as the students wrote the examination .
One of the candidates, Akintola Isaac , told NAN that his system tripped off thrice , adding that any time it tripped , he started all over again .

Akintola, who sat for the examination for the second time , added that the consistent failure of the system did not allow him to finish the examination before he was asked to leave the hall .

“ We barely commenced the examination when all the system in the hall went off.
“ After getting them running again, my system tripped off three times and it took 10 to 20 minutes to get it working again each time .

“ In the long run, I only finished two papers and was on the third one when I was asked to leave the hall , that my time was up.
“ When I complained to the JAMB officials and appealed to them to allow me write again, they told me that there was nothing they could do .

“ I’ m still appealing to JAMB to give me another opportunity because it was not my fault, ” he said .
Another candidate, Hamza Gambo , said : “ The examination commenced around 9 :00 a . m . and shortly after we commenced , electricity went off and the all the systems shut down .

“ After restoring the power , which took about 10 minutes , my system tripped off and forced me to wait for 20 minutes before it was restored , and I had to start all over again .

“ I was on my fourth paper when I was asked to leave the hall . This is unfair, ” she said .
Also , Jamilu Iliyasu , who wrote the examination for the first time , complained that the network was bad , adding that the system kept freezing .

“ It was a bad experience because it affected my time . I am not happy at all, ” Iliyasu said .
Similarly , Zainab Abdullahi , who wrote the examination for the third time , said her system was not functional and she had to wait for about an hour before she was assigned another one .

However , a candidate, Temitope Adebowale , said that after the initial power cut, the exercise went on smoothly .
“ This is my first time and I am confident of scoring between 280 and 300 points , ” she said .

When contacted, a JAMB official who spoke on the condition of anonymity , confirmed the system failure to NAN.
“ As you can see , the second set is supposed to enter the hall around 10 :00 a . m . after the first set had finished, but they are just entering the hall now and it is already 12 : 00 p . m .

“ I just pray that what happened with the first set will not happen again , ” she said .
And when asked about what JAMB would do about Akintola Isaac ’ s case , she said : “ It is officials at the JAMB headquarters that will decide his fate .

“ Ours is to write a report , indicating what transpired in the course of the examination for them to take necessary action . ”
Also , the Human Resource Manager of Danbo International School , who refused to give his name , confirmed that the electricity in the hall went off due to technical failure .
“ When they commenced the examination , we received a complaint that the air conditioning system in the hall was not working and the hall was stuffy .

“ I asked one of our technicians to fix it and he went to the switch board to see if there was electricity in the wires that feed the air conditioning system . He hadn ’ t even open the board when the light went off .
“ And for the systems that were bad , we were able to replace them with some back -up system that we kept for such emergency situation , ” he added .

Meanwhile , the examination went on smoothly at the Kaduna State University centre , where the examination took place on time without a hitch .

One of the candidates, Abdullahi Abdulrasheed , applauded JAMB and KASU for the smooth conduct of the examination , adding that he was optimistic of getting up to 200 points .
( NAN)