Unilorin CBT Centre: A Unit in Dire Need of Intervention

It is glaring that we all have fears. The question is, whether we consume our fears or our fears consume us.

For five years in a row, the University of Ilorin has been the most-sought-after varsity in Nigeria. And for no fewer than 17years the University gate has remained open.

It has set an unsurpassed record of a seventeen-year uninterrupted academic calendar being a federal institution in the country. This, among other phenomenal achievements, has made it better by far.

One of the effects of this landmark achievement can be seen in the University’s keenness on making teaching and learning ICT-based.

In achieving its goal of an ICT-driven educational process, University of Ilorin entrusted its IT/ICT policies unto COMSIT. For many years, the COMSIT has digitalized and supervised test and examination exercises. This innovative effort made University of Ilorin the first Nigerian tertiary institution to run a Computer Based Test (CBT). With this successful and unprecedented achievement, University of Ilorin became a trailblazer and set the pace which other institutions, including the Joint Admissions Matriculation Board (JAMB), have ever since keyed into.

Unfortunately, for over eleven years now, the University CBT center has witnessed an infinitesimal amount of improvement in terms of introduction of new technologies, hardware devices, and staff members. Since 2013, the University has incredibly admitted more and more fresh students without making adequate provisions for facilities that will cater for the teeming student population.

Manifestations of this lopsided development can be seen in the inadequacy of transportation, basic welfare amenities like toilets, lecture rooms, and other challenges that Unilorites faces day in, day out.

This is Nigeria. It is really not surprising because we spend on education rather than investing in it. This is the missing link.

The Better By Far varsity is known for her uncommon way of doing things. From investigations, things haven’t been rosy in recent times with the school due to lack of proper planning. This has cost the University community some amount of unrest and distress as proper planning could have prevented the University’s CBT Center from having a poor performance.

EXAM/TEST SCHEDULE

The essence of scheduling is to ensure efficiency. However, the exam/test schedule for the University CBT center is a mere paperwork; it was never followed. Whenever schedules get lumped up, the whole exercise becomes devastating for both of the students the officials.

At the inception of CBT, if a student misses his Department schedule for a particular test/exam without a cogent reason they were never allowed to sit anymore. Today, the reverse is the case. Students are the first at the CBT center before the technical and academic staff come around to do their duty.

The Center does witness a depressing train of the queue, as students form an overwhelming size of queue, under the hot Ilorin sun simply because the schedule is not respected by those who made it. Most times test/exam scheduled for 8-10 AM runs till 2 PM and the target of the day will be the only goal of the CBT staff with little or no consideration given to the health condition of students who are held up under the scorching sun. And since this set of Students are human beings and couldn’t cheat nature they gave in to the organized torture on them and they find succor at awkward places.

University of Ilorin Student’s having a short nap at a building opposite the CBT center after the day stress has worn them out.

It’s quite unimaginable that University students who are prepared and ready for a test/exam could find themselves in this kind of situation all because of improper scheduling. One wonders how these students will not perform poorly in writing examinations under these unfavorable circumstances.

Anger and Human Management

Action and reaction are equal and opposite. Most times, students react to the lackadaisical attitude of staff members and security personnel at the CBT center with aggression as they are also human. This in return earns them sets of slaps and manhandling. The immediate past student Union President was also a beneficiary of the slap-spree season.

In a sane Academic environment, there is no reason whatsoever a Staff should slap a student. It was gathered that most of this staff never went through the Psychological test before they were employed.

Desperate moments, they say, warrant desperate actions. But in a Better by Far University, things should have been in better control. How will slapping of students put the queue into order? How will the use of bamboo and walking sticks on students put the queue in order? Moments like that needs to be psychologically arrested and therefore staff members need such training.

Dr. Tomori trying to put a queue in order with a stick at hand.

The Mantra – You Can’t Call for CBT Result

The beauty of CBT is to ensure efficiency, accuracy, and accountability of students’ scripts. The manual system or paper-based test nonetheless is prone to loss of scripts, damages by rodents or harsh weather condition. And from findings, scripts cannot be destroyed; not until five years after the marking of such scripts. Meaning students can call for written scripts as far as it’s still within the five years benchmark.

As highlighted earlier, the digitalization of the PBT is to ensure proper archiving of exam records which can be made reference to at least in 10 years before disposal which should not even be the case as various copy can be made and be kept at various location. If truly things are working as they were to be, then the mantra – you can’t call for CBT results is just merely unethical and misleading. Is it that the CBT center has no database where records of students’ exams are being kept safely? Is it that the staffs at the CBT center lack the technical know-how or that the students have no right to such records? These are questions begging for answers.

Unfathomable Irregularities at the Center

As highlighted earlier, the CBT is a digital platform that came to cover lapses of the PBT system. The PBT system has done series of damages. Some of them include a situation where a student was awarded ‘07’ on the script but was awarded ‘70’ on the scores sheet. Cases like that are numerous and CBT came to correct such irregularities.

The question is if such still persist in an environment where CBT is being patronized, wouldn’t that be catastrophic? The images below speak a lot. If the irregularities found in the pictures below are that of a manual/PBT system it might be pardonable. However, with a computer program running on a machine, something is definitely wrong. How will grading be more than 100%? Definitely, something is wrong.

 

The portal of a Student who was graded above 100%

The portal of a Student who checked her result early in the day and had a “B” (RIGHT ARROW) and later in the day checked again to meet an “F” (LEFT ARROW)

During the course of my findings, the Students’ Union made a broadcast congratulating Basic Medical students and Clinical sciences students that their GNS311 result has been released after three month’s waiting period. If truly technology is applied in the marking of scripts and compilation of results, it is commonsensically unacceptable that it took three months for some set of students to set their eyes on the result of a particular course; a general course for that matter. Finally, the result was released. Now was the result being manufactured initially?

STUDENT INSENSITIVITY

This piece would be incomplete if the level of student insensitivity is not looked into.

Some students come to the CBT arena with their bags and gadgets; for what exactly? Students go as far as placing their bags within an electric transformer close to the CBT arena. Dear students, your life is more important than your exam and your bag. Do learn to leave your bag at home.

Dear students, you yourself have made the center a theft arena. If you kept your gadget at home safely no one will be a monitoring spirit on your gadgets.

Finally, my findings as made it glaring that few students have a copy of the University students information and regulations handbook and few only had a glimpse of the University dress code regulation and never deemed it fit to consider examinations conduct. Dear students, the rules need to be followed as ignorance of it will make you unworthy students.

In conclusion, I believe we can be better in this sector. The road to success is never smooth and the time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining as rain wouldn’t give us the will.

By:

Akeukanwo Sulaiman,

Akeukanwo Sulaiman is an alumnus of the Better by Far University.

UCJ, UNILORIN.