JAMB releases results, says 1,948 cheated with handsets

Registrar of the board, Prof.

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board has released the results of the 2007 Universities Matriculation Examination.

The Registrar of the board, Prof. Dibu Ojerinde, who announced this in Abuja on Thursday, however, said that out of 40,043 candidates that were caught cheating, 1,948 used mobile phones.

Ojerinde added that 299 invigilators and external agents were reported to have colluded with the candidates to cheat during the examination.

He said that 21,466 cases of irregularities were pending, following discrepancies noted in the candidates’ scripts.

Ojerinde said, ”This, however, does not represent the actual number involved in examination malpractices. The number of those involved in the malpractices would be determined when investigations are completed.

“A further analysis of cases of irregularities shows that 11,755 candidates came late without valid reasons and 2,757 were caught spying and copying from prepared answers.

”About 299 examiners and external agents were reported to have compromised their positions and colluded with the candidates to cheat. A total of 1,948 candidates were caught cheating with mobile phones during the examination.”

Ojerinde lamented the roles played by some of the examiners and external agents and vowed that JAMB would follow up on all the cases to find out the real perpetrators.

Aba, Abakiliki, Abeokuta, Agbor, Agege, Anyigba, Benin, Ibadan, Ebute Meta and Ede were listed as some of the towns where irregularities were noted during the examination.

Others are Efon-Alaye, Iwo, Gboko, Lagos Island, Ikirun, Ikeja, Ikorodu, Ikot Ekpene, and Ila-Orangun.

Though the results did not indicate the level of students‘ performance, Ojerinde said there was an improvement over the 2006 UME.

He said that out of the 911,679 applications received by JAMB, 854,439 sat for the examination.

The board received 806,089 applications in 2006.

Six states in the southern part of the country recorded the highest applications while six in the north took the rear.

The top states are Imo, 93,065; Anambra, 64,689; Delta, 61,580; Edo, 57,754; Akwa Ibom, 47,928; and Ogun, 47,227.

The six with the lowest applications are Kebbi, 4,682; Sokoto, 3,925; Taraba, 3,832; Zamfara, 2,904; Jigawa, 2,541; and Yobe, 2,516.

The results also showed that of the total number of applicants, 59.12 per cent were males, while 42.87 per cent were females.

A further breakdown of the results showed that the Faculties of Social Sciences and Medical Sciences had the highest number of candidates.

They were followed closely by the Faculties of Administration, Engineering and Environmental Technology, Sciences, Law and Arts. Faculties of Education and Agriculture came last.

Ojerinde expressed worry over the number of applications for Agricultural and Education courses, saying, “It was not good enough for the country since these are where we need most of the students for the development of Nigeria.”

He also said that the examination was taken in Ghana, Cameroun, Benin, Saudi Arabia, and the United Kingdom at the same time with Nigeria.

According to him, 15 candidates took the examination in Ikoyi Prison. Fifty- four visually -impaired candidates also sat for the examination across the country.

Ojerinde appealed to universities to give special consideration to the physically-challenged candidates.

JAMB conducted the examination on May 5, 2007.