Posted by BY ROTIMI LAWRENCE OYEKANMI (LAGOS) AND CHRIS GARBA (ABUJA) on
LYMANGEE Agir, a 38-year-old candidate, who applied to study History at the Benue State University (BSU), has emerged the best....
* 38-year old is best
* 108,769 Results Cancelled
LYMANGEE Agir, a 38-year-old candidate, who applied to study History at the Benue State University (BSU), has emerged the best in this year's University Matriculation Examination (UME), scoring 330 marks.
But it is a sad story for 108,769 candidates, as they will not get their results.
Results of the examination conducted by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) were released yesterday. Lagos State topped the list of states where large-scale malpractices were recorded.
Agir also made history as the first candidate from Benue State to achieve the feat. The second best result went to Inerepamo David Odom (18), from Bayelsa State, who scored 328 and had applied to study Business Administration at the Delta State University. Twenty-year-old Sulaiman Gwani Lawi, an indigene of Kano, came third with a score of 327. His place is assured at the Bayero University, Kano, where he had applied to study Islamic Studies.
But the performance in this year's examination, according to Prof. Bello Ahmad Salim, the Board's Registrar who announced the release of the results, showed a drastic fall in all the subjects, when compared to last year's. Specifically, candidates performed below the records of the previous two years in the Use of English, and the three major science subjects: Biology, Chemistry and Physics.
While the mean scores for the Use of English were 76.9 and 80.6 (per cent) in 2004 and 2005, the mean fell to 73.2 this year. In the same vein, while the mean score in Biology was 51.4 in 2004 and 52.3 in 2005, it fell to 47.5 this year. For Physics, it was 42.6 per cent in 2004, 48.2 in 2005 and 41.5 per cent this year.
Besides, Salim revealed that large scale cheating took place in this year's examination.
He said: "It is quite disturbing to note that invigilators and other examination officials compromised their positions and actively colluded with candidates to perpetrate examination irregularities. For instance, at Ajumoni Senior Grammar School, Lagos, an invigilator was caught with copies of prepared answers, which he sold to candidates.
"Out of the total number of candidates (806,089), 108,769 or 13.49 per cent will not get results. This is against 10.56 per cent of the total results cancelled last year. It is quite unfortunate that the board is being forced to cancel many results because of large scale irregularities."
Salim also said the board had made arrangements for the checking of the UME results online. Candidates are to use the JAMB Online Information and JAMBiTes Information Services, and no candidate would have access to his/her result at any of the board's offices.
Salim also advised candidates to report any corporate organisation that lays claim to the checking of results to the appropriate authorities, as "the board has not authorised any tutorial or coaching centre to serve as a centre where candidates can check results."
Imo State topped the list this year with 83,895 applications. Yobe had the least number of applications of 1,589 candidates. Overall number of female applications this year was 39.91 per cent, and Imo State had the highest number of female applicants (43,657).
With regard to applications by Faculty, students applied more for courses in the Social Sciences (172, 387) while Agriculture had the least number of applications (8,196).
Announcing the results at a press conference in Bwari, Abuja yesterday, Salim, said that the Board was being forced to cancel many results because of the large scale irregularities and malpractice discovered during the processing of all candidates results who sat for the exams at various centres nationwide.
On fraud indices, Lagos State led with 27 centres while Adamawa, Edo and Ogun states recorded the least number of centres where the fraud was discovered, with only one centre each.
Salim described the situation as quite unhealthy for the education sector and pledged that the Board was going to continue to de-recognise examination towns and centres where wholesale malpractices were discovered.