Education News
Today's Mock Jamb Was Indeed A Mockery
Students from far and near went to their different jamb exam centers to write the mock exams today.
The exam was supposed to be in two batches.
There was a batch A that was slated for7 am and candidates were expected to have been seated by 6:30 am, then there was the 9 am batch and the candidates were also expected to have been in their centers by 8:30 am.
I actually took my daughter to the CBT professional test centre at bwari FCT not few metres away from the JAMB head office here In Abuja, that was her center.
It was an annoying situation when even as at 12:30 pm the candidates that were billed for the 7am exams had not started.
Parents that were waiting for their children became apprehensive and couldn't just understand what the delay was about.
Most of the children had not eaten and some parents had actually done drop off with the mind of coming later for their ward.
Most of the children that had been dropped off, had no money, phones or even food because they felt they could endure whatever hunger until after the exams.
At about 12:40pm, 3 coaster buses drove into the centre and the staff and security personnel at the centre began to direct some of the children to get on the buses.
In the process, some parents raised alarm and began to shout even as they wondered at the rationale behind such action.
At a point some of the children that had seen parents yelling at them to get off the buses, quickly did.
Meanwhile before then, no body not a even staff came out to address the waiting parents as to what was really going on, and when parents asked them, all they were told was that network was slow thereby affecting "thumb printing", for 6 hours?
It was at the point when parents were yelling at the gate that the Registrar of Jamb drove in with 3 Hilux trucks of security men armed to the teeth.
He grudgingly stepped out to address the parents because they compelled him to.
Before then, parents had begun to look for snacks and drinks for their children who had started complaining of hunger. They kept on coming to the gate to talk and complain to their parents, because they were not in the exam hall, but under a makeshift tent.
Some were even feeling sleepy and tired after staying up late to read at night.
The Registrar with every sense of pomposity told us that we were breaking the law because we came close to the gate to give our hungry children food and drinks.
It's not as if they made any provisions for the children o.
We were even expecting him as a father to sympathize with the children and beg them for understanding being their fault that their systems were not working.
When he said that, all hell let loose.
Parents began to scream at him out of anger, because we were expecting some kind of explanation or even apologies. Instead he told us that we should not have come close to the gate.
I asked him how we would have been able to pass on the food items to our children, and that if they had done the right thing, there would not have been any reason for parents to come close to the gate.
At that question, he began to ramble and tell us stories of network failure and all those annoying lies.
He subsequently told us that the second batch were to get on the buses and go and write the exam in jamb office.
A parent asked how the children will come back to the original center they were posted and he swore that the buses will bring them back
To cut the story short, the exams actually started at 3:45pm and ended at 5:30pm.
And the shocker we received was that those children that were taken to the jamb office had to trek all the way back to their former center, except for those that their parents took them their with either bikes or vehicles.
I don't know when we will get it right in this country.
Ordinary mock jamb in FCT..
So how would it be in other states and local government areas?.
It keeps getting worse every year.
And those children came out of the center broken, dissolutioned, and frustrated. You could see the children that were all fired up in the morning, and ready to do justice to the Mock exam, coming out very cold and troubled.
I have said it, let us go back to the days of shading with HB pencil abeg
It's not worth it.
We can't seem to get any thing right in this country.
Ordinary computer based test?