Most painful experience at JAMB was seeing parents organise exam malpractice – Immediate past registrar Ishaq Oloyede

The immediate past registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Ishaq Oloyede, has described parents’ involvement in examination malpractice as the most painful experience of his decade leading the organisation.

Oloyede spoke on Sunday, August 2, during the THISDAY Live programme on Arise Television, days after handing over leadership of JAMB to his successor, Segun Aina. President Bola Tinubu appointed Aina, a professor of computer engineering at Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, to succeed Oloyede as the sixth registrar of JAMB.

Oloyede, who was first appointed in 2016 by former President Muhammadu Buhari and reappointed for a second term in 2021, reflected on his tenure and said the greatest concern was not the candidates themselves but the role some parents played in encouraging malpractice. He said: “The most painful period of my experience in JAMB has to do with the level of involvement of parents in the organisation of examination malpractice.”

He said some parents were introducing their children and wards to criminal behaviour by helping them cheat during examinations. He added: “They are introducing their wards and children to the world of crime. I think most of the candidates are not problematic. They are not the problem. The problem is the parents.”

Oloyede said confronting the reality of parents facilitating malpractice often left him emotional. He said: “Every time I was confronted with the reality of what parents are doing, most of the time, I became very emotional about it.”

He questioned why some parents would engage in actions that could negatively affect their children’s future. He added: “Most of the time, I feel that how on earth will people hate themselves and their futures to this level. Even if you have deficiency, you won’t want to pass the deficiency to the next generation.”

The former registrar described his time at JAMB as largely successful, but identified the confrontation with parents involved in examination malpractice as the lowest point of his administration. He said: “For me, it was a fine period. The only lowest period was when I confronted parents over involvement in the planning and introduction of their children and wards into crime (examination malpractice).”

Oloyede also expressed confidence in his successor, saying Aina’s background in computer engineering would help him further improve the use of technology in the conduct of the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME). He said Aina’s expertise would position JAMB to make greater technological advancements in its examination processes.