NITDA partners others to provide e-learning solution to remedy mass failure in JAMB, UTME

IN a bid to address the increasing rate of mass failure in national examinations in the country, using Information and Communication Technology (ICT), the National Information Technology Development Agency, NITDA, has cut a partnership pact with two indigenous software companies, Cinfores Limited and WaveTek Nigeria Limited.

     The partnership was consummated at the weekend, when the agency witnessed the signing of Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with WaveTek and Cinfores Limited on the deployment of a special version of Nigeriaís foremost e-learning and examination preparatory software.

    The special version, which is customised for the forthcoming 2015 Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB)/Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) is referred as JAMB Brainfriend. 

   Speaking on the development, the Director General of NITDA, Mr. Peter Jack, said the agency keyed into the initiative as part of its effort to deepen and encourage local content development in education and other sectors of the economy as mandated by the Act setting up the agency.

  ìBased on the transformation agenda of Mr. President, the Federal Government of Nigeria is doing everything possible to ensure that the Nigerian educational system is improved and made world class.î

  ìThere is certain decline in quality of education in our country. The mass failure in UTME and other national examinations in recent years, as a case in point, is a mixture of many things including the non-availability of quality local resources to change the tide of mass failure and exam malpractice that has plagued the nation,íí he said. 

  The NITDA boss also stated that NITDA as an IT agency is committed to transforming every sector in the country through the introduction of ICT. He pointed out that in its various effort to ensure qualitative education in the country, NITDA would engage various local and international organisations to develop locally adapted solutions that will meet the needs of the sector. 

  He added that the agency would do everything possible, within its disposal, to support the partnership between the two companies. 

  In his remarks, the Managing Director of Cinfores Limited, Mr. Asawo Ibifuro, said the software companies decided to introduce the examination software, Jamb BrainFriend to arm Nigerian students to be better prepared for the forth coming JAMB examination. 

  Asawo, who frowned at the increasing rate of failure of students in UTME, said the software company, ëëis committed to helping the students and exam candidates to adequately prepare and pass their various educational examinations by developing the customized version that would help them overcome any kind of questions that come their way.î

  He also noted that the software, apart from arming the students for their exams, would also prepare them and erase any phobia or myths surrounding the electronic JAMB examination, which is taking off this year.” 

  He, however, assured the candidates that the software would definitely help them in minimizing the high rate of failure in forth-coming JAMB exams if it is effectively utilised.

  On his part, the Managing Director of WaveTek Nigeria Limited, Mr. Ken Spann, said the two companies realized the danger of examination mass failure in Nigeria, a reason he said informed the development of JAMB BrainFriend software to cater for the challenge of mass failure in UTME, which was above 75 per cent in 2014. 

   Spann who had earlier spent about 11 years promoting Microsoft Education via Microsoft IT Academies at Microsoft USA and Nigeria respectively, further enthused that, “Through WaveTek’s strong network in education, we are collaborating with Cinfores as their marketing partner and ensuring that BrainFriend is used by the over 1.4 million candidates registered for JAMB UTME scheduled for March, 2015”.

  The software can be accessed at every JAMB form selling point across the country and it will also be available at all the NITDA digital centres across the country, to enable the candidates access the software.