Many of the candidates writing the ongoing Joint Admissions and Matriculation (JAMB) Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) have expressed their grievances over the sudden slash of the time given to them to finish their papers.

Some of the affected students writing the examination, which kicked off on March 9 and ends on the 21^st, voiced out their frustrations to News Express Correspondent in Ibadan.

Mariam Ahmed Olayinka, who sat for the Computer Based Test (CBT) exam at the ICT Centre, The Polytechnic Ibadan, said she was slated to write her exam from 1:30 p.m., as stated on her slip, but her batch was called in at about 5pm – after about four hours delay.

Her words: “We were supposed to start the exams at 1:30 p.m., but we started 5pm. We were given three and a half hours to finish up, but we spent 2 hours for the four papers. At exactly 7pm, while we were still on the computer, they asked us to stand up and leave the hall. We were shouting that we had not finished, but they went ahead to shut the server down. This is a sad moment for me and I am not happy about it.

“With this, I scored 185. I knew if I had done the last paper, mathematics, I would have scored more excellently. My parents have been hurling insults at me since then as if I caused it. My time was still remaining 1:30 minutes on the system before they asked me to leave.”

Another candidate who spoke today on the same development, Olaonipekun Ifeoluwa, JAMB officials and other invigilators monitoring the examination decided to shut down the server before time as it was getting dark. She disclosed that some of the invigilators complained that they had children at home to go and cater for.

Ifeoluwa also complained about the slow speed of the computer systems available for the examination, which, she said, unnecessarily slowed down the candidates.

According to Ifeoluwa, “When you click on an answer for a particular question, it takes time before it responds to bring another consequent question. This poor process wastes much of our time. Most of us were not able to finish up as a result. This CBT exam should be proscribed because it has affected us much and we don’t want a continuation of it.”

•Photo by Mayowa Okekale shows one of the victims whose exam time was truncated, expressing her grief.

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