TECHDIGEST – The Registrar, Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, Prof Ishaq Oloyode, on Friday in Kano said the board had so far registered not fewer than 1.4 million candidates across the country for the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination.

He reminded candidates that there would be no extension of the March 26 deadline for the UTME registration.

READ ALSO : 2022 UTME: JAMB Introduces Self-Registration Centres, New USSD Code

Oloyode said this while ascertaining the level of preparedness and facilities at the Kano zonal office of the board.

According to the JAMB boss, the board will not succumb to any pressure to extend the UTME registration, pointing out that it had fulfilled all the requirements for a hitch-free registration of prospective candidates.

‘’My mission in Kano is to assess the level of registration. There is no crowd at the centres; the registration is going on smoothly, but the board is worried that towards the end of the exercise, people will be clamouring for an extension,” he stated.

Oloyede noted that the National Identification Number was no longer a problem and called for the sensitisation of candidates.

The registrar pointed out that so far, the board had registered 1.4 million candidates across the country.

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By Kabir Abdulsalam

TECHDIGEST – No doubt, cybercrime is increasing  each day and evolving to become more complex and more formidable. As it is possible for government agencies like the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Nigerian Army Education Corps (NAEC), Nigeria Police Force, and others to have their websites hacked, private organizations are equally vulnerable.

For instance, the registrar of JAMB, Professor Ishaq Oloyede, while speaking to  journalists had disclosed that hackers had stolen over N10 million after gaining access to its site and altering the profiles of its ad hoc staff.

In 2011, cyberpunks also attacked two Nigerian government websites, Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) and  National Agency for Poverty Alleviation to protest against the $6 million budget for the inauguration ceremony of President Goodluck Jonathan.

Again, during ENDSARS protests in 2020, Anonymous, a popular decentralized international ‘hacktivist’ group took the side of Nigerian protesters by organizing several attacks against government accounts and handles.

As Nigerians become cyber-creatures, spending more time online, exploring more digital contents, so does cybercrime affects a huge number of organisations and individuals.

Recently, the Director-General, National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, announced its ambitious target to achieve 95 percent digital literacy by 2030.

Kashifu, at a digital journalism workshop organised for journalists in Kano, noted that the government had put structures in place to protect the ecosystem under its strategic roadmap and action plans on cybersecurity.

He said: “Cybersecurity is one of the strategic pillars under our strategic roadmap and action plan which is more about social engineering. So, we do three things. We do a lot of awareness so that people need to know the dos and don’ts of social media. That’s what will hold them to protect confidential information.

“We have a centre called the computer emergency readiness and response centre working round the clock to make sure we proactively protect our digital space. We help MDAs, private organisations, and individuals to protect the data and information.”

He further revealed that the agency has people trying to get inside from what’s happening in the deep web and dark web all to proactively protect the country, adding that a team of professionals are also on standby to help people restore their services in case their system is compromised.

Arguably, many organizations in the world have been cyber-breached, the probability of a cyber breach happening to a regular company is increasing and the impact could be devastating.

Meanwhile, as PR practices involve in engaging damage control; the aftermath of the attacks, can lead to loss of revenue, stolen data or money, data restoration services, and many more, yet the biggest fear of a cyber breach is the damage to organizations’ brand, resulting in a loss of trust with clients, partners, employees, and stakeholders.

While PR professionals will be restless during crises, so also during internet breaches. Notwithstanding, a responsive PR  professional needs to swing into action, building strategic response quickly and confidently to make sure their messages resonate and grab the attention of the media, stakeholders, and the masses.

The good news, though, is that planning will ensure quick and confident management that will garner public and customer trust and protect the business image.

Danny Pehar, a Forbes Technology Council scholar has suggested some key phrases while responding to cyber-attacks;   Be Quick To Respond, And  Sincere, Only Report On What You Know, Know The Channels Of Communication Clearly, Offer Restoration Services.

Your audience needs to be informed on how their information may be at risk. Apologizing to them sincerely for the disruption and inconvenience while accepting responsibility takes power away from hackers and gives it to you.

Truly, to regain audience trust, you need to outline a mitigation strategy. Explain to the public what steps you are taking to ensure safety and how secure the network is to protect clients’  information.

From a PR standpoint, communicating with the public needs to be clear and simple. Avoid messages that will generate curiosity for stakeholders and the press.

Demonstrate social empathy while responding to questions as anything that can damage a company’s brand to the point of no return needs a well-thought-out PR strategy.

Kabir Abdulsalam is a Staff Writer Spokespersons Digest

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TECHDIGEST – Prof Ishaq Oloyede has handed over the Baton of the leadership of JAMB to Fabian Benjamin Okoro who is the director of information technology services of JAMB following the expiration of his tenure as JAMB boss and the failure of President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration to announce either his replacement or reappointment.

Prof. Oloyede, who was appointed as the Registrar of the Agency on August 1st 2016, has completed his five-year term of office at the weekend. He has been praised by many for reportedly turning around the examination body, especially in the areas of financial discipline, accountability and war against examination malpractices.

According to the information gathered, prof. Oloyede’s decision to hand over to Mr Fabian Okoro was due to the directive by the ministry of education that all the concerned chief executives should hand over to the most senior directors in their agencies.

Mr Fabian Okoro, who joined JAMB in 1993 as a programmer and was appointed a deputy director in 2018, is said to be the most senior director in the establishment.

He is a graduate of Computer Science from the Federal University of Technology Akure (FUTA) and holds a Master of Science in Computer Science with option of internet computing from the University of Bedfordshire, United Kingdom in 2007.

After working for JAMB as a programmer for three years, the new acting registrar was promoted as a senior programme in 1996 and became a chief system analyst in 2002 and an assistant director in 2006.

He is said to have contributed significantly to the reform in the information technology unit of the examination body having received nudge and support from Mr Oloyede who reportedly brought new innovations to the body’s operations since his appointment five years ago.

At the moment, it is not certain if President Buhari will reapoint Prof Oloyede as no official statement has been made regarding this by the education ministry.

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TECHDIGEST – The tenure of the Registrar/Chief Executive Officer of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Prof. Is-haq Oloyede, will end tomorrow.

The tenures of 13 other agencies and corporations under the Federal Ministry of Education will also lapse on the same day.

The heads of the agencies will stop reporting for duty as from today, being the last day of work, after serving for four to five years. The affected officials are eligible for reappointment for a second term as may be deemed fit by President Muhammadu Buhari.

But there was no official announcement or statement on their fate last night.

Other Education sector’s chief executives whose positions would be vacant include Prof. Abubakar Rasheed, Executive Secretary, National Universities Commission (NUC); Dr. Hameed Boboyi, Executive Secretary, Universal Basic Education Board (UBEC); Prof. Ifeoma Isiugo-Abanihe, National Business and Technical Examination Board (NABTEB).

Others are: Prof. Sunday Ajiboye, Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN); Afolabi Aderinto, Computer Registration Council of Nigeria (CRCN); Prof. Garba Dahuwa Azare, National Teachers Institute (NTI); and Prof. Michael Afolabi, Librarian Registration Council of Nigeria (LRCN).

Also affected are: Prof. Steven Ejugwu Onah, National Mathematical Centre, Shedda; Prof. Chinyere Ohiri-Aniche, National Institute of Nigerian Languages; Prof. Lillian Salami, Nigerian Institute for Educational Planning and administration; Prof. Lanre Aina, National Library of Nigeria; Prof. Abba Haladu, National Commission for Mass Literacy, Adult and Non-Formal Education and Prof. Bashir Usman, Nomadic Education Commission.

The chief executives were appointed by President Muhammadu Buhari on August 1, 20216. They were sworn in by Education Minister Adamu Adamu on August 2, 2016 at the auditorium of the National Universities Commission (NUC).

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TECH DIGEST – The Registrar of Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Prof. Is-haq Oloyede, says the era of malpractices in the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) is over.

Oloyede said this in his address at the foundation laying ceremony of the board’s International Talent Resort Centre on Wednesday in Gbongan town, Ayedaade Local Government Area of the state.

He said that no amount of blackmail would deter the board from its avowed mission of ridding the education system of malpractices and examination syndicates in the country.

Oloyede noted that in the past five years, JAMB had strengthened its processes such that opportunities to commit examination malpractices had been substantially blocked.

According to him, the recent “exaggerated uproar” on the poor performance of candidates who sat for 2021 UTME is “misplaced”.

The JAMB registrar said that many of the candidates who sat for the examination failed because of fake digital past UTME questions and answers in circulation by ” a cartel” before the examination.

“Many may not have noticed that shortly before the commencement of 2021 UTME, a cartel published a fake digital past UTME Question Papers and was circulating fake questions and answers claiming to be genuinely from JAMB.

“Many parents who fell for the scam must have now realised how wrong they and their not so innocent children were.

“This explains why many students had to collapse in the examination hall when reality stared them in the face.

“This is a lesson for people to realize that the days of examination malpractice in JAMB conducted examinations is over and over forever”.

Oloyede also said that government and security agencies needed to pay attention to “miracle centres”, which he said was wreaking havoc on public examinations.

“A recent experiment by Bayero University, Kano, shows that as high as nine per cent of the A/level results being churned out (courtesy of these tutorial centres) are fake.

“Tertiary institutions also need to pay particular attention to the fact that these examination fraudsters parading themselves as tutorial masters are infiltrating vastly and deeply into the institutions’ Interim Joint Matriculation Board (IJMB) and Joint Universities Preliminary Examination Board (JUPEB) units, wreaking untold havoc on the education system”.

He, however, said that with the standard of Computer Based Test (CBT) centres, the activities of the miracle centres had been eliminated in respect of UTME.

“The states and security agencies, therefore, need to pay sufficient attention to the fast expanding illicit education gangsters,” he said.

Oloyede also said that the directive by Federal Government on the use of NIN for UTME had improved the capacity of the board to eliminate impersonation during UTME.

Oloyede, however, said that it was quite disturbing that even some parents/guardians as well as some school proprietors/administrators were also deeply involved in examination fraud.

On the resort centre, Oloyede said it was programmed to be an integrated ultra-modern educational facility to serve all researchers, particularly those engaged in various academic services of the Board.

He said the first phase of the project, which would gulp N280 million, would comprise of an office and 550 seater CBT centres, adding that the project is in four phases.

“On completion, the resort shall provide a world-class research facility in a serene environment.”

The centre is conceived to be a centre where scholars, particularly those engaged by the Board for various academic purposes, will converge,” he said.

In his remarks, Gov. Gboyega Oyetola, said the siting of the Centre in Osun, no doubt underscored the existing robust collaboration and partnership between the Board and the state.

Oyetola, who was represented by Secretary to State Government, Mr Wole Oyebamiji, commended the board and the Federal Government for siting the centre in the state.

Also speaking, Oba Adetoyese Oyeniyi, the Olufi of Gbongan, thanked the board for finding the town worthy to host the resort centre.

Mr Wale Babalakin (SAN), who is an indigene of the town, commended the Federal Government and the board for citing the centre in the state.

(NAN)

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TECH DIGEST – Prof. Is-haq Oloyede, Registrar, Joint Admissions and Matriculations Board (JAMB) says malpractice and indiscipline are some of the board’s major challenges yet to be fully addressed.

The Registrar made this known when members of the Senate Committee on Basic and Secondary Education visited the board’s headquarters in Bwari, Abuja on Monday.

Oloyede said that the challenges, unfortunately, were mostly with regards to parents trying to bend the system by all means and get their wards or children into schools, irrespective of their performance.

“Our challenge remain examination malpractice, especially with regards to parents who keep calling me to favour their wards or children wether they meet the requirements of the system or not.

“There’s also indiscipline from the tertiary institutions who admit against the Federal Government’s policy guidelines as mandated by the Ministry of Education.

“At the end of the day, after admitting outside these policies, they put pressure on students at the final moments towards graduation to come back to us for what they call regularisation.

” We also have same challenge from some private sectors and dubious Computer Based Test (CBT) centres too and we are really putting efforts to curb this.”

The Registrar said that the number of registered candidates for 2021 Unified Tertiary Matriculations Examination (UTME) was not up to 1.4 million, a low figure, when compared to 2.2 million in 2020.

He noted, however that the mandatory use of National Identity Number (NIN) helped the board to curb some of the malpractices usually encountered during the UTME registration.

Oloyede said the malpractices included multiple and fraudulent registration by candidates with irregular credentials.

He said that during the 2021 examination, the board’s challenge shifted to security operatives attached to some of the centres, whom he said allegedly smuggled fraudulent candidates into the examination hall.

“Even after they dodge the verification process where of course the system would have identified them through their pictures, the cameras at the centres immediately picked them and we were able to apprehend them.

“That was when some of them said either their parents gave the security operatives money to let them in or the candidates themselves bribed their way in.

” So whether we like it or not, NIN helped us curb some of these challenges at both the registration and examination exercise.”

On JAMB’S budget performance for 2020, the Registrar noted that the board remitted N4.1 billion to the Federal Government confers, stating that staff welfare was paramount and they were adequately taken care of.

He said that the board adopted some secondary schools in its host community, alongside other pet projects in some schools to enable it make the desired impact in Bwari communities.

A monitoring committee, he added, had been set up by the board to ensure that the monies disbursed for the projects was properly used.

Oloyede said that plans were underway to complete a 2,500 capacity centre with global standard that would give room to CBT or process of exercises like the NIN registration and other exercises from across board.

Speaking on behalf of the committee, Sen. Akon Eyakenyi, Vice Chairman of the committee said that the members were on an oversight visit to check on the board’s appropriation as approved by the National Assembly.

Eyakenyi said the committee was also at the board to assess the just concluded UTME and find out what was behind the performance with regards to results of the candidates.

“The interaction with the registrar today revealed alot of truth that Nigerians do not know as it relates to conduct of the UTME.

” I appreciate the registrar and his management team , indeed, he is a round peg in a round hole who knows what it takes to run an institution like this.

” Most of the revelations we saw are not what is to be exposed to the public in terms of conduct of the examination.

” JAMB stands as a bridge between the secondary and the tertiary and if it continues with what we have seen so far, definitely, the education sector in the nation will be improved.”

Eyakenyi said that the committee had identified two major areas that might need to go into the process of amending the Act establishing JAMB, which would be the committee’s support to the board.

She said that the committee would also look into and advise the way forward on the issue of appropriate age for candidates to enroll for tertiary education.

Eyakenyi, while commending the efforts of the board, also urged it to from time to time, go public in educating Nigerians on what was expected of them generally, especially parents of candidates. (NAN)

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TECH DIGEST – The JAMB Registrar, Is-haq Oloyede, has blamed the coronavirus pandemic for the poor performance of candidates in the just-concluded Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination.

While appearing on a live programme on a Nigerian Television Authority’s tagged “Weekend File”, Oloyede confirmed that this year’s UTME results were poorer than those of three years ago.

The registrar said the COVID-19 pandemic affected the smooth running of the academic calendar.

He said 99.65 per cent scored 120 marks and above out of the possible 400 in 2021as against 99.80 per cent in 2020.

Oloyede said, “In 2018, it was 99.99 per cent but in 2019 it dropped to 99.92.

“Also, in 2020, 69.82 per cent of the total candidates who sat the UTME scored 160 and above but in 2021, it reduced to 65.62 per cent.

“But this is expected. In Nigeria, we think we do not live in a global community. All informed education experts understand why it is so. They knew the point at which we were in the academic calendar before the examination was taken in 2020 and in 2021.

“Last year, when they took the examination, they (the students) had gone far in their syllabus. But this year, they suffered incomplete academic sessions; they had to cope with emergency online lessons and even many other disturbances like insecurity.”

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TECH DIGEST – Joint Admissions and Matriculations Board (JAMB) has advised candidates whose registration process is incomplete to visit special centres to finish the process.

JAMB’s Head of Media Dr Fabian Benjamin gave the advice in a statement on Monday.

Benjamin said the advice affected only those who could not complete their registration during the earlier scheduled registration period.

He said only candidates whose names were compiled after giving reasons for the incomplete registration process and had been contacted “are expected to visit the centres”.

“At the end of the period originally scheduled for the 2021/2022 Unified Tertiary Matriculations Examination (UTME) and Direct Entry (DE) registration on May 15, the registration period was extended.

“Another two weeks that elapsed on May 29, was given to accommodate candidates who, largely due to issues related with newly introduced pre-requisite of National Identification Number (NIN), could not register.

“Additional extension of two weeks was made to compile the list of all prospective candidates who for any reason were unable to register.

“The candidates who have not registered but have secured the profile codes and initiated the registration process are expected to visit the specially designated registration centres to complete the registration on Tuesday, June 15.

“Designated registration centre for each candidate is being forwarded to them through the GSM text (SMS) messages and also available on the website of the Board (www.jamb.gov.ng) from 12 noon on Monday, June 14.

“The identification number on each form given to the candidates has been used to assign the candidates to their registration centres.

“Only candidates who have secured their profile codes are expected to visit the centres.

“Also, the names of the few who have not yet obtained their NIN or profile codes have been forwarded to NIMC and would be contacted as soon as they are cleared by NIMC.

“Each candidate posted to any non-JAMB owned CBT centre is expected to pay the registration fee of N1,000 to such CBT centre,” Benjamin said.

The 2021 UTME is scheduled to commence from June 19 to July 3.

The Registrar of the board, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, however, disclosed the possibility of conducting a second UTME for candidates with genuine registration challenges.

Oloyede had stated this on Wednesday in Lagos, while monitoring profiling of candidates with 2021 UTME registration challenges.

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TECH DIGEST – The Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has announced the extension of the 2021 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination and mock examinations following reports of widespread delay in registration.

Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, the Registrar of JAMB made the announcement at a news conference after a two-day meeting with stakeholders in Abuja on Saturday.

Oloyede said that the board had identified challenges in registration and as such proffering solution to them.

He said that at the end of the meeting, stakeholders had recommended a two-week extension for the exercise fixing the new date for May 29.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the board had earlier fixed the deadline for registration for May 15, however, had to extend the date owing to challenges candidates were faced with during registration.

Oloyede said that following this, 2021 Mock earlier scheduled for May 20 would now hold on June 3, while the UTME would hold from June 19 to July 3.

“Field reports showed a huge improvement in the processes. As at today, 1,134,424 candidates have so far registered.

“Stakeholders undertook on the spot assessment of the CBT centres and discovered lapses which warranted the extension.

“The challenges among others include candidates non-compliance with registration requirements, using the wrong format to generate profile code and using multiple phone numbers, among others,” he said.

Oloyede said that the board would disburse a monitoring team to the states of the federation and direct CBT centres to stop selling e-pins.

He said that the board would sanction any CBT centres that violated the board’s requirements.

He, therefore, implore the Ministry of Education to help discourage parents to desist from registering underage children to pursue tertiary education. (NAN)

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TECH DIGEST – In order to prevent a situation whereby over 600,000 prospective candidates would miss this year’s Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination, UTME, the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, JAMB, is set to extend registration for the examination by two weeks, while the examination itself would be postponed by another two weeks, checks by Vanguard have revealed.

The paper gathered on Friday that the extension in registration and the shift in the commencement of the examination would be suggested to stakehoders by the Registrar, Prof. Isaq Oloyede, during a meeting scheduled for late Friday.

The registration for the UTME had earlier been scheduled to end on Saturday May 15, but with the look of things, it may now be extended to May 29, 2021.

The examination, which is computer-based, earlier scheduled for June 5-19, may now start on June 19 and terminate on July 3, 2021.

However, the mock exam would still hold on May 20, and it is a voluntary exercise for interested candidates.

Sources told our corespondent that the steps became inevitable because as at Thursday night only about 1.3 million candidates had registered for the exam.

This is a far cry from the expected figure of over 2 million candidates.

Last year, 2.1 million candidates sat for the same exam.

The problem with this year’s registration is the inability of many applicants to link their National Identification Number, NIN, to their applications.

Vanguard Learning had reported on Thursday the frustration by parents and candidates over the NIN linkage.

Some of the candidates told our correspodent that they have spent thousands of naira on airtime without successfully linking their NIN to their applications.

The government made the NIN compulsory this year after the idea was jettisoned last year following hiccups that dodged getting the NIN registration exercise.

However, the situation was exacerbated this year when the government made NIN compulsory for all Nigerians of registrable age.

Before now the National Identification Management Commission, NIMC, the agency saddled with generating NIN for the citizens, boasted that it was up to the task.

The Head of Corporate Affairs of NIMC, Mr Kayode Adegoke, had given the assurance that the agency would be up to the task, but the reverse seem to be the case now.

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