Ahead of this year’s Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) examination across the country, many operators and owners of Computer-Based Test (CBT) centres in Oyo State have appealed to the National Assembly to persuade the management to increase the cost of examining candidates, given the present economic hardship.
The CBT owners, who spoke with newsmen anonymously, lamented the cost of materials used in conducting the examination annually.
They stressed that the business was far from profitable for them, whereas the government enjoys the lion’s share of it.
A CBT owner in Oyo town said, “Since 2020/2021, the management of JAMB has been paying us N700 per candidate to supervise and conduct their exams, and it was still the same N700 that the body was paying us up till last year.
“The book that was N500 two years ago is now N1,000. As they increase the JAMB form for candidates, they do not increase the registration price. The price of petrol has increased, just as the pay for our staff has also increased.
“We cannot pay them the same amount we spent in 2022 or 2023. The removal of fuel subsidies has made everything costlier than in past years.
“The money we spend on our computer systems and the hall where we assemble them is massive. We have entered into it, and we cannot now say that we are discontinuing. When we consider the cost of infrastructure to construct cubicles and equip them with computer systems, construct a server room, and install a server, it is not easy to say that one does not want to do it again.
