JAMB Coordinator Applauds AUN’s CBT Center in Yola

The Joint Admissions & Matriculation Board (JAMB) has applauded the ICT infrastructure at the American University of Nigeria for administering stress-free Computer Based Tests (CBT) for
candidates seeking admission into universities in Nigeria.
JAMB’s Zonal Coordinator, Mr. Buba I. Gashua, said during last week’s CBT exams that the University’s
facilities at its African Center for ICT Innovation & Training (AICT), in Yola and Jimeta, fully met the
expectations of the national examination body.
The coordinator confirmed the initial submission of the JAMB accreditation team from Abuja which
rated the AUN Center as excellent.
“We discovered that they [AUN-ACIT] had quality facilities, enough to accommodate candidates that
we need to examine in this center…and the examination is being conducted in an atmosphere that is
conducive and candidates are not experiencing any technical hitches because all of the systems deployed at the center are working perfectly.”
“This year, we are lucky to have this AUN Center with the machines on ground, and the networking
systems working to specification. It’s the perfect exam setting,” Mr. Gashua said. The AUN-ACIT
hosted six sessions of the JAMB CBT exam which began on Saturday, May 17 and ended on Friday, May
23.
Looking forward to next year’s exercise, the Zonal Coordinator was optimistic that AUN authorities
would consider JAMB’s request to expand the facilities at the ACIT. “I want to appeal to the Center to
expand its facilities, because by next year we will have more candidates to write this examination here.
We hope that this partnership with the AUN will continue for the benefit of JAMB and Adamawa
people. AUN has promised deploying more computers and expanding the center.” said the CBT was
now an annual feature in JAMB exams. “We believe that this method of testing is the best, and I am
calling upon parents, candidates, and all education stake holders to rally round JAMB, and give us
support.” The Zonal Coordinator also applauded the University’s free IT training for at-risk youths in
the surrounding communities, from which over 2,000 have already benefited, and advised on ways that
it could be more effective. “AUN should extend it to all secondary schools. ACIT should extend the
Computerize-Yola-Jimeta campaign to all secondary schools in the state, and aim at state-wide
computer literacy.”
AUN also organizes free JAMB/WAEC/NECO tutorials for candidates from neighboring
communities, a scheme which aims to boost young people’s confidence in such examinations and
reduce the incidence of failure.
On the first day, ninety of the 100 candidates originally booked for the exams at the ACIT turned up. At
7am, they had their biometrics captured without hitches by JAMB officials.
Candidates interviewed were impressed by the quality of facilities. “It’s AUN, and anything that has to
do with AUN is obviously exceptional, so I wasn’t surprised when I saw the facilities. They were
wonderful of course, and it wasn’t below my expectation at all,” said Ms. Sekina Baba, a candidate.
Another candidate, Mr. Ibrahim Halilu, said, “The facilities are very excellent, I think they are better
than most of the ones we have in other schools or centers.”
Ms. Adaeze Ibeh also spoke about the facilities. “This place is equipped with facilities like air
conditioners, modern desktops, and the exams just flowed well,” said Ms. Ibeh. “It was awesome, there
was nothing like exam malpractice.”
AUN authorities announced that they were hosting the exam in their facilities free of charge as part of
their contribution to youth education and community development throughout Adamawa State and the
North East. AUN’s Chief Information Officer, Mr. Julius Ayuk Tabe, explained that by making
available its resources for use by the community, AUN as an institution was playing its part in shaping the
lives of people. “We are a development university, and one of our major community service elements is
free ICT training for youths and the community at large. So we are equipping these centers to fulfill our
principal mission as a Development University.”
Mr. Ayuk Tabe added that AUN will lead the creation of more CBT centers in Jimeta, Kano, Port
Harcourt, Lagos, and Abuja. Director of Auxiliary Services, Mr. Renaldo Rheeder, told reporters that
AUN had the capacity to host a hitch-free exercise. “The kind of work that we do here requires that we
have the best facilities not just for training, but also for exercises like this. Because of the importance we
attach to this exercise, it is very important to deploy reliable systems, so we had to not just have normal
IT systems that you would have in a training center, but we also had to ensure that we have reliable
power.”
ACIT Manager and JAMB CBT Coordinator (ACIT Center), Mrs. Priscilla Abdul, said the exams were
successful and that there were no hiccups. “We all worked to make this a success; we made sure all our
systems worked very well, and also made sure that the network and security aspect were secured
according to JAMB specifications.”
According JAMB sources, more than 600, 000 candidates registered for the CBT nationwide. Over 1.6
million candidates had applied for the Paper Pencil Test (PPT) and Dual Based Test (DBT) held on April
12.
The AUN-ACIT was among the testing centers selected for the conduct of the Computer-Based Test,
newly introduced by JAMB. It is the only approved CBT center in the Adamawa State capital and its
environs.