The JAMB saga

Passing a board examination is not a miracle or rocket-science, because all what I believe is that, whoever read and understand question perfectly will definitely pass the examination even with an average grade.

But still, I often say that to some extent it could be a miracle, because it was someone else that will mark the paper(s) instead of the person that prepared and set the questions, more especially an examination like this, in which the examiner will not bother to give a second thought when marking the script, unlike essay questions, where the examiner will award mark for the attempt.

Indeed, this year’s JAMB result is seen to be a tragedy, considering how majority of the candidates that wrote the examination failed. This has made those that failed the examination to blame the board members for their negligence, among many other blames.

Now to begin with the point, in spite of the aforementioned, but still I share the opinion that “no food for a lazy man” likewise those that failed JAMB. I’m optimistic that they are un-serious students, because if they had read their papers, they would have made it accurately.

However, if you look at the matter from another angle, you’ll realise that the education sector is crippled, to an extent that, government failed to provide adequate teaching materials for the final year secondary school students. This makes our younger ones to fail the Computer Based Test (CBT) exams, despite being in digital century.

Furthermore, even the board itself can be held responsible for its I don’t care attitude towards ensuring that the JAMB applicants have conducive environment when writing the exams, and also to undergo a series of orientation before writing the examination.

In view of the foregoing, the best and possible major way out to avoid a repeat of same issue is that both the parties should come on board and put their hands on deck, because if not, my fear is that, things will get worse.

Abubakar Muhammad Sani,

Kaduna.