The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has conducted a selection examination for medical doctors who applied to work during the Jerusalem pilgrimage of the National Christian Pilgrims Commission.
About 4370 candidates registered, for the selection examination for 250 spaces provided by the NCPC.
The registered candidates are doctors who applied to the commission to render medical services to Christians pilgrims to Jerusalem.
The Abuja test was held at the JAMB Computer-Based Test centre in Kogo, Bwari area of the Federal Capital Territory, while others were held in the six zones of the country.
An NCPC board member and Deputy Director, Federal Ministry of Health, Dr David Atuwo, said the selection system was an improvement based on merit, rather than bias.
He said, “” Today it is all based on merit. The Executive Secretary and the board thought it fit we should change the system instead of somebody sitting down in his house and making a list of people to represent the medical team. We felt that merit should take the fore front and JAMB has done an enormous job for us.
“There is no Godfatherism here and that is what we are advocating for the country that everything should be based on merit. This is purely merit based and even Nigerians will not allow it to go back to the former system.
“Close to 4370 candidates registered, at the end of the day we will know how many sat for the exam. We have 250 spaces, if we are to sit down in our office and put names it will not be fair.
“The doctors paid a bit more than the nurses. The doctors paid N15000 and it was not for profit making. It was to take care of logistics.
“It was well calculated. JAMB graciously lowered the fees for the commission. It will be a continuous exercise and everyone has seen how fair this method is. It is merit-based. The beauty of the CBT selection is that immediately you finish the exams, you have your score.
”So you cannot deny this. Among the over 4,000 applicants, we are taking 250 persons.”
The JAMB Director of Special Duties, Olujide Adisa, said the partnership would extend to the Islamic pilgrims board also.
He said, “Our core duty is testing and we do more than doing examination into higher institutions. We do consultancy services too. The questions are drawn by the medical council and moderated by JAMB.
“We do this to ensure fairness and to remove bias.
“We ensure that the questions follow the international standard. We intend to have a working relationship with the Muslim pilgrims board too.
“This is a specialized examination, the questions are drawn by the medical council and moderated by JAMB, we used our tool to moderate the exam to be fair to every candidate and to be sure that the question is not biased in anyway,” he said.
