Education stakeholders are currently calling for the review of the rigid nature of the biometric process in the Joint Admission Matriculation Board (JAMB) registration exercise, as identified challenges cannot be resolved except at the national headquarters in Abuja.
The board, in its bit to eliminate all form of impersonation and improve the registration process in 2017, introduced the profile creation exercise to modify the biometric capturing in the registration process, which includes live picture capturing and biometrics capturing of ten fingers.
However, the Board at the commencement of the 2019 registration exercise announced that it would not reschedule its examination, particularly for candidates with biometric challenges, adding that all candidates whose fingers could not be captured at the point of registration must visit the headquarters of the Board in Bwari, Abuja, to have their issues addressed.
Isaac Oloye, education analyst, speaking on the adverse effect of the biometric process on the candidates, said, “It is a bit discouraging to those who could not be captured at the point of registration. There is need for the Board to review the process of rectifying the challenges encountered at the point of registration as against making candidates visit the headquarters in Abuja to rectify such challenges.
“How does the Board expect the candidates to cope with the stress of travelling the long distance, who takes care of the accommodation and feeding in the case of not being able to return back to their states? This exposes the candidates to great risks of insecurity and other risk you can think.”
Oloye, speaking on the percentage increase recorded in the registration, said, “The 2019 registration is peculiar as it is the first time in decades that the Board application fee is being reviewed downward. The slash triggered an upsurge of candidates registering for the 2019 UTME.”
Yemi Tope, a registered candidate in Benin City, told BusinessDay that the registration process was easy for her but some of her friends were affected as their fingers were not captured at the point of registration and they were not allowed to travel to Abuja to rectify because of fear of safety.
She said, “I was not affected but I have some friends who were affected, and they have decided to register next year because their parents will not allow them to travel to Abuja to rectify the finger capturing challenge.”
Lilian Aigbe, a mother to an affected candidate, said, “I do not have any relative in Abuja, I cannot allow my child to go all the way to Abuja, where will she stay, how will she take care of her self there. I would rather wait to re-register next year instead of risking the life of my child to Abuja for JAMB registration. The Board should make it easier for these children to rectify any identified challenge in the various states.”
An official from the Ministry of Education who plead anonymous said the 10.4 percent increase recorded in the 2019 UTME registration was due to the cut down to N5,000 from N7000 of application fee, which served as a means of encouragement to the applicants.
According to the Board’s weekly bulletin released on Monday, the biometric security is a breakthrough for the Board because fingerprint recognition technology provides a greater degree of security as it is impossible to steal, forget, lose or compromise data already captured. During registration, the candidates’ 10 fingers are captured and are used in the processing and documentation of data for the candidates’ UTME and DE.
The bulletin shows that the six weeks period of registration had a total number of 1,881,488 candidates registered for the UTME, representing a 10.4 percent increase compared with the figure recorded in 2018, which stood at 1,662,762; with a total number of 93,748 registered for 2019 Direct Entry application.
As contained in the bulletin, the Board made it clear that it would not reschedule examination for any candidate whose 10 fingers could not be captured on account of biometric challenges. As such, the Board directed that all candidates who could not be registered at any CBT centre nationwide must come to the Board’s headquarters for his/her registration and subsequently the UTME.
“From this exercise, it was noticed that many of the challenges associated with biometric during registration were man-made. Before the close of the registration, about 50 candidates whose fingers could not be captured throughout the country were invited to the Board’s headquarters, but only 22 out of that number reported for capturing. Unlike the previous years’ exercises where over 24,000 candidates who claimed to have biometric challenges had their examinations rescheduled.
“The adoption of biometrics in the conduct of the Board’s examinations is here to stay. At the same time, candidates can be rest assured that their fingerprints will not be used for any purpose other than identification. The benefits are immense and are indispensable to the assessment process,” the Board said.
