Some candidates who have sat for the ongoing 2018 Unified
Tertiary Matriculation Examinations (UTME) sofar, say they found the use of
computers challenging. The candidates
spoke in separate interviews with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN)
correspondent who monitored the exercise on Wednesday being 14th
March, 2018 in Lagos.
NAN reports that
the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) on March 9 started the 2018
UTME in its 605 centres across the country. One of the candidates, Adenike Kemi,
who sat a Lagos Centre told NAN that the questions were not as challenging as
the use of the computer.
Kemi said that her
inability to use the computer was because she was coming from a rural part of
the town and access to such gadgets was a challenge.
She said that the little knowledge she
had on the use of computer was a bit different from what she experienced while
sitting for the examination.
“For
instance, I got so tensed I skipped to the next page when I was not through
with the one I was answering”.
“Asides
this, everything went fine with me; I’ll just go and pray that God favours me,”
she said”.
Another
candidate, Ogbonna Isaac said that it was just two weeks ago that he familiarizes
himself with the use of a computer.
He said
that his school, which was government-owned, was teaching computer studies but
not the practical aspect of it that would enable him use the system
effectively.
He,
however, said that his experience during the examinations was a smooth one,
although he was slow, she managed to make good use of her time.
Furthermore,
he said that “more students would have been familiar with the procedure of how
to use the computer, if JAMB was able to conduct a mock test for everyone
before the examination proper”.
According
to him, only those who are writing the examinations for the second or more time
will find the use of the computer easy.
“Some of
us are writing for the first time, it is not as if I have not used a computer
before but you know this is an exam and if you make one mistake, there’s no going back”.
“You need
to think well at the same time be fast because your time is running. I must say
also that the questions were what I expected but the options were really
confusing for me.”
Isaac
lauded the entire conduct of the exercise, while also commending the centre for
keeping to time as well as maintaining a hitch free session.
Mrs Hadizza
Afeez, parent of one of the candidates
at a G-lead centre advised other parents to ensure their children received
computer training while in school.
“If the
school, whether private or government owned, does not teach or have the
computers to teach them, the children should be enrolled in training centres.
“This is
better than buying them big phones and gadgets they do not need for now and
that may even take away their attention from learning from the big screen.“This
is where it starts from, once they gain admissions into higher schools, it
would not be new to them anymore.”
NAN
recalls that Prof. Is’hak Oloyede, JAMB’s Registrar recently stressed the
board’s readiness to keep pace with the fast changes in technology. He
therefore urged candidates to improve their skills in information technology to
be able to run with the board’s vision.
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