Rivers set for e-UTME

…JAMB flags off awareness campaign

The Rivers State Government says infrastructure is in place for candidates to write the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) online next year.

Speaking when Prof Dibu Ojerinde, Registrar, Joint Admissions and Matriculations Board (JAMB) flagged-off an awareness campaing about the Computer Based Test (CNT) for the 2013 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examinations (UTME), the Commissioner for Education of the state, Dame Alice Lawrence-Nemi said that the government will provide free laptops to students in public schools by March 2013.

This is in addition to the provision of ICT facilities in schools and the introduction of ICT learning at the primary school level.

The Commissioner noted that the government has built a Computer Centre in conjunction with Zenith Bank, adding that the Ministry will ensure that students without ICT facilities in their schools will be sent to the centre for training.

Mrs. Lawrence-Nemi also promised to support JAMB in creating awareness about the CBT examination next year, saying the Ministry will take the campaign to all public and private schools in the state.

Earlier in his address, Ojerinde said the CBT will be fully operational in 2015 and until then, JAMB will still accommodate paper and pencil examination.

He noted that Rivers State chosen as the take off point of the awareness campaign because of the transformation in the education sector of the State.

He also appealed to the Commissioner to assist the body to relocate their zonal office in Port Harcourt which gets flooded during rainy season.

In her closing remark, the South South Zonal Coordinator of JAMB, Mrs. Stella Onowu Amene, thanked the Commissioner for agreeing to take the CBT awareness campaign to schools.

Meanwhile Dame Lawrence-Nemi thanked JAMB for the successful conduct of the Rivers State teacher recruitment exercise in August.

She said the State will recruit quality teachers for the 13,000 teaching positions in its schools, who will undergo six months training to equip them for the task ahead. The Commissioner hinted that 11,700 slots were given to Rivers Indigenes while 1,300 non-in-digenes will be employed.

Praising the board’s effort in eliminating examination malpractices, she assured Ojerinde that the state will assist the examination body in relocating its Zonal Office in Port Harcourt.