DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF ONLINE EXAMINATION OF UNIFIED TERTIARY MATRICULATION EXAMINATION

Abstract

Registration for the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination, UTME, is organised by the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board, JAMB, for admission into tertiary institutions in Nigeria. This registration is conducted in all the states in Nigeria in a given period of the year. Many a times, the process is cumbersome, not organized and posses a lot of stress to students. So, the goal of this project is to provide a readily accessible and userfriendly system for students to register for UTME online and also to access the result of the examination online. This would be similar to other online registration forms, but it will also feature the following advantages; as a webbased system, students will be able to have access from any computer that has a web browser and is connected to the Internet to register for UTME, with a graphical interface, this system will be more userfriendly and intuitive to use. The introduction of online registration was an enormous improvement over the old, cumbersome paperbased method. In the course of implementing the software, HTML and Visual Basic 6.0 was used to design an online examination registration and result checking form for UTME.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the Study

It is obvious globally that most candidates seeking admission to higher education prefer universities. The Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination UTME, however, will help recruit students to other kinds of institutions such as the Polytechnic and the College of Education.

Emodi 2010 observed that our higher educational institutions are confronted with the pressure of an increasing number of students demanding for access. She stressed that students compete for the limited places in our universities and that in all countries, admission into the top institutions have become more difficult to achieve. Emodi therefore noted that competition has always been a force in institutions of higher education and that in many ways, it can help to produce excellence and best performance.

Adedoyin 2009 however canvassed for the approval of more private tertiary institutions in Nigeria, adding that the number of Universities in the country was inadequate and cannot satisfy the educational needs of the Nigeria youths. This assertion is also true and applicable to both State and Federal Universities in Nigeria, bearing in mind the number of candidates seeking admission yearly.

The Joint Admission and Matriculation Board JAMB was established in Nigeria in 1978. Prior to this, each University was responsible for the conduct of its own concessional examination and admitted its students. In 1987, JAMB performed the exemplary feat of printing examination materials in Nigeria. Since then, the Boards question papers have always been produced and answer scripts processed in NigeriaIdoko 2008. JAMB, which is now 19782010 32years old, celebrated its 30th anniversary of success 19782008 at the Headquarters office, Bwari, Abuja. A review of JAMB activities after more than thirty years of existence, with the introduction of UTME is seen as imperative and justifiable.

1.2 Statement of the Problem

Manual registration and examination processing system in any process or institution or exam body is always affected by delay, misplacement, erroneous entries, etc. Examination registration is highly a critical issue as students affected by these lapses may loose one year before they can register for another exam. This leads to lost of resources, time, discouragement, and defeat in academic pursuit. Going by this, it is evident that for an effective administration of Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination, the registration and examination result process has to be online.